[Sca-cooks] Non-Europeans (mostly, but not completely, OT)

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

El Hermoso Dormido wrote:
>...The notion of showing up at an event dressed up in a
>Polynesian outfit has occurred to me (though I'm not likely to
>ever ACTUALLY do it), since, after all, a lot of spices that
>were very important to Europe (hey, look!  I've somehow managed to
>make this thread relevant to cooking for a moment! :-) ) came from
>the area, so I'd have at least as much excuse to do that as to
>adopt a Japanese persona...

Uh, Polynesia was not a source of spices.

Perhaps you are thinking of Indonesia.

It was formerly known as the Spice Islands and the East Indies, the
fourth most populous country in the world and the most populous
Muslim country in the world.

I've toyed with having an Indonesian alternate persona for hot
weather. I lived in Indonesia for a couple years and have an MA in
Southeast Asian Studies... But around here when it's hot during the
day (85 or so), it's 40 at night.

There was indirect contact between Europe and Indonesia for some
time, since one single Indonesian island was the sole source of
nutmeg for quite some time (when the Dutch took over, they killed
every single inhabitant, effectively wiping out a whole culture and
language, since each island is home to at least one unique
culturo-linguistic group). Around 1650 it became a colony of the
Netherlands, after some struggle with a couple other European
countries over it - although not all islands or ethnic groups
capitulated and the Dutch were still fighting hold-outs in the early
20th century, such as the Bataks in North Sumatra and the Balinese.
However, there was European contact before the 17th century, in the
16th c. with both the Dutch and the Portuguese (gee, sounds like
Japan).

I rather doubt any Indonesians ended up in Europe, but, well, if
there are Japanese and Aztec personae in the SCA, why not Indonesian?
There's even an e-mail list for Southeast Asian personae, however,
there are only 5 members and almost no traffic...

I chose to be Near (not Middle) Eastern and i live in Europe (Cordova
in southern Spain). I chose my time and place because women didn't
have to wear veils (and European women do most of the time), women
can be educated, and women can be professionals who travel as they
engage in their business (early 10th c. in the reign of Caliph 'abd
al-Rachman III). I also picked it because i like the food and the
comfy clothes.

Anahita / Mutiarawati