[Sca-cooks] nibbling and buffet tables and such

[Kirrily Robert]

Hrm.  A banquet, in the Elizabethan sense, is effectively a dessert
buffet.  It is usually eaten somewhere other than where the rest of the
meal was eaten, and special "banqueting houses" were built for the
purpose.  Some of these were in the garden, or in towers on the roof,
and they often had interesting views and quirky design.  This is where
the toffs would go to finish off their meal with sugary things like
comfits, marmelade, marchpane, suckets, and sweet baked things.  The
french term "dessert" came into popularity sometime in the 17th century,
IIRC, but the term refers to the same activity, in which people *desert*
the table so they don't have to watch the servants cleaning up the
remains of the meal at the other tables while just the high table has
the final course.

Yours,

Katherine

--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net  http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
"The rose is red, the leaves are grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene"