[Sca-cooks] MK cooks

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Pixel, Goddess and Queen:
>  > Philip wrote:
>>  (snipped for length)
>>  The feasts in the MK tend not to be particularly
>>  period <snip>
>>  Much of the reason MK feasts seem to be non-period is
>>  I think, because there's a perception that period food
>>  is nasty in the MK <snip>
>>
>>  Unfortunately as a cook in the middle kingdom who has (unfortunately)
>>  only attended local Baronial Feasts (one was OK, the other was a
>>  potluck).  I have to agree with Philip.  When I told my household I
>
>
>Can we stop slamming the whole MK with the same bat, please? I have been
>to any number of delicious, documentable, and fully-attended (with an
>accompanying huge waiting list) feasts in Northshield, which, last I
>checked, was still part of the MK.
>
>So maybe we're aberrant and dangerously progressive up here in
>Northshield, but "Oh, ick, period food" is not something I hear much.
>Faerisa, did you hear anybody complaining about your 12th Night feast?
>
>Group preferences appear to be regional, as are overly-common dishes, and
>the MK is far too large to be considered just one region.

To be honest, I was always a little confused by this entire thread,
both by the subject matter and by the reaction (of course, it's not
the East that's being written about, so I can afford to be detached,
and of course this could change at any moment ;-) ).

I didn't read the original post as a slam of anything. If it was
critical, it was also qualified as being one person's experience.
Maybe more could have been done to emphasize the fact that this was
one person's experience, and not _necessarily_ an empirically
kingdom-wide problem, but it's on record for anyone who cares to read
it that this is one person's experience with whatever events, in
whatever groups, which constitute that person's experience.

Another postor specifically mentions agreement qualified by the
statement that she had only been to two local, Baronial events. YMMV,
and evidently it does. Good! But where's all this slamming that I
seem to have missed? Please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I
don't think the subject line of "MK cooks" originated in posts from
either of these two gentles.

Does anybody wish to go on record making the unqualified statement,
"Food in the Midrealm is invariably lousy and non-period."? Anybody?
Si or no?

I didn't think so.

We might turn this into a general discussion (which, to some extent
seems to have happened) of how and why group's standards for food
quality, exoticism/domesticity, and periodicity differ. This might
help explain why people's experiences seem to vary so much.

For example, I live in a group with probably more fine restaurants
per capita than most, more libraries, more universities, and more
high-quality, ethnic and specialty food markets than most. Frankly,
we're a _relatively_ sophisticated bunch, with rather high standards,
when it comes to food _and_ research, and da|\/||\/|it, if we're not,
I want to know _why_. Of course, online access has decreased the
effect that large urban centers and university towns have on the
local SCA populace in that regard, but there are still differences
between groups.

On food quality: It's hard to predict what's going to constitute
wisdom in a given situation. I'm classically trained, more or less,
have worked in some very fine restaurants, and am considered to be
reasonably talented. Can I fry chicken like my friend from Arkansas?
I can make a reasonable attempt, but it's just not the same. Does
that mean that my experience is useless? Of course not. In general,
I'm better prepared for doing an SCA feast than someone who doesn't
have this experience. Does that mean my way is always the best, or
the right, way? Definitely not! Local norms and personal taste are a
large part of it. If I enter a community where ketchup is a vegetable
and _both_ kinds of starches are served, both bread _and_ potatoes, I
may find that some of my expectations aren't met. But if that
community really doesn't have a problem with their system, that's not
my bidness. I adapt or die. And well, if the bread, potatoes and
ketchup aren't even properly prepared, I can volunteer to teach, cook
them myself, and if I can't do either and still have a problem with
the situation, then I have the option of leaving that community.

On periodicity: it largely depends on what you're trying to
accomplish. If you can get into a ye-olde-knights-and-dragons mood
with a ball gown and a pointy hat, and everyone else around you is
happy with that, and that is the desired goal for a group's events,
then fine. There's no rule that says otherwise. There's also no rule
against seeing each feast as a challenging research project and a
gustatory epiphany. Again, if you and your group are happy with that,
fine. Most groups fall somewhere in between, but others approach one
extreme or the other. Ostgardr is pretty high-end, but then the
Carolingians think we exist so they can have someone to look down
on... ;-) (Exaggerated local humor.)

The only really immutable goals of the SCA (and the first is
unstated, AFAIK, but obvious) is to 1) have fun 2) with the world
prior to the seventeenth century. This is why I get so crazy when
people start talking about what is permissible. It's as if they're
worried about social pressure to not do something that they're
contemplating. Well, that is unfortunately a reality; as with the
law, you can pretty much do whatever you want to, but there may be
unfortunate consequences to be considered, and it isn't necessarily
the fault of the evil rulemakers that this situation exists.

Certainly there _are_ places, mundanely, where people are very
unsophisticated, and sometimes even rather undemanding, about food
(which could be argued as a good survival trait -- think what a
cockroach needs). One of the largest trends in the food-service
industry is a management system that _absolutely guarantees_
mediocrity as a means of avoiding unacceptability. They have
deliberately eliminated excellence from the formula in order to
insure that the quality does not fall below a certain point. Why is
it so unlikely this scenario could appear in the SCA?

Adamantius, donning flame-proof undies and awaiting the inevitable