SC - rare foods at feasts-rant

[Jenne Heise]

>> << (Based on his postings to the list,
>> however, I wouldn't go onboard for one of his feasts unless I felt like
>> sampling a bunch of weird food, rather than eating a dinner with some
>> weird food thrown in.) 
> You have been told several times what exactly I do. Also a glance at my menus 
> posted to this did not reveal any weird foods that I could find. Perhaps it 
> is just your eating habits that are weird and outside the norm?

Nope. I don't have a problem with going to the feast of someone who states
repeatedly that he doesn't cater to modern tastes, makes a point of
serving multiple organ meats, etc. etc. and challeges people's food
perceptions. It sounds like fun, and an opportunity to sample foods I've
never eaten before... unless I'm really hungry or have an unsettled
stomach. Or have a bunch of newbies with me. 

> I would suggest that the hundreds of folks who come to my feasts REPEATEDLY 
> feel the same way. There are many on this list who have eaten my feasts and I 
> am sure that they can vouch for the fact that your viewpoint regarding my 
> feasts is entirely invalid and completely based on misperception and a lack 
> of experience in the preparation and consumption of actual medieval dishes 
> prepared authentically.

Nope. I've had plenty of medieval dishes. I generally like 'em. However,
when someone claims that he goes out of his way to break people's modern
conceptions of food, I know what to expect-- I've eaten those kind of
feasts before. With such a feast, the eaters have no idea whether they
will like what's put out... even if they are gourmands like me. (An
example: The second feast I ever attended-- which was very well cooked
under adverse conditions-- was designed to show off a wide variety of
unfamiliar medieval foods. Unfortunately for me, in the course of the
feast, the dishes included damn near all the things I dislike intensely--
quite a trick as they are relatively few, and very odd-- and finished up
with a lovely period presentation of blancmange with hardboiled egg yolks
set in it, though the eggs were slightly overboiled, which forcibly
brought to mind the elementary school song about the gopher guts...
*grin*)

It's all about feast philosophy. 

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again."