[Sca-cooks] Vegetarian politics aside.....

[Kirsten Houseknecht]

<sigh>
i LOVE vegetarian foods.. and cant eat most of them.
allergic to Garlic, intolerant of most notable spices....

i have always said if you can feed me at a feast, you can feed anyone! but i
*know* i am difficult, thats why i dont usually even bother with feasts..
and this means i dont get to participate in the local SCA very much... which
is sad.

the funny thing is.. in PERIOD a lot of the non meat dishes *would* have
been trying to imitate meat...... so the TVP casserole is a period type of
item.. but the much better quality "vegetarian and not ashamed of it" dishes
are less period.. because so much attention was placed on meat (or illusion
type dishes)
Kirsten
kirsten at fabricdragon.com
http://www.fabricdragon.com

"Did you vote?  No?   Then don't come whining to me...."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kirrily Robert" <skud at infotrope.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 11:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Vegetarian politics aside.....


> > I would say that [3] and [4] above are quality issues that are
> > experienced by everyone, whether they eat meat or not, and really
> > have nothing to do with menu design or planning. Yes, these
> > difficulties may stand out more when you don't have a big hunk of
> > rare steak to fall back on, but with the exception of Asian meals
> > whose basis is something like plain, unsalted, boiled or steamed rice
> > (accompanied by something flavorful, as a rule), food in general is
> > not supposed to be that bland, not even that boiled barley.
>
> Yup, you're quite right.  It applies for every meal, but it does stand
> out more if you don't have the more spiced/flavoured meat dishes.
>
> > As for quantity, well, between proper planning on the part of the
> > cook and decent behavior on the part of the meat-eating diners, which
> > I would rather not assume would be a problem, this should be easily
> > surmountable. Not getting enough of such a dish should not be
> > considered a problem with the dish itself, and choosing one dish over
> > another in menu planning would seem not to address this particularly
> > well.
>
> Correct.  But one thing you could do, for instance, is make a little
> extra of the veg dishes.  Let's say you're making a quichey-thing with 8
> servings, for tables of 8.  And you have half a dozen vegetarians
> pre-booked.  Make an extra quichey-thing, and get the servers to take it
> round to the veg's to see if they would like another slice.
>
> > So while I'm really not trying to lead the witness, is this becoming
> > an argument in favor of separate food for non-meat-eaters, versus the
> > idea of incorporating meatless dishes into the main menu? Some of the
> > recurring issues seem to relate to non-meat-eaters feeling somehow
> > less catered to (see the feast-versus-meal references, the various
> > discussions on what constitutes a "main" dish, and the suggestions on
> > making meatless protein in chunky, but also, coincidentally or not,
> > more labor-intensive, forms) than meat eaters are.
>
> My personal thoughts are:
>
> 1) use documentably period vegetable dishes as part of the main feast.
> Try to provide a mix of flavours, textures and nutrients through these
> means.  Try to stay on-theme, and make the dishes appetizing even to the
> meat-eaters.
>
> 2) if you can't manage a full feast for vegetarians this way, consider
> making minor variations to other dishes - leave the bacon bits out of
> the cabbage dish, or make a small batch of the glop with a vegetable
> stock.  Using TVP etc would be one of the more extreme forms of this.
>
> 3) if 1 and 2 won't do what you need, as a last resort you might
> consider making a special dish for the vegetarians.
>
> > It sounds mostly like a plea for more considerate
> > planning, with a view toward what that course, and that complete
> > feast, will look like with the meat dishes subtracted, and whether it
> > needs something more,
>
> Yup, that's how I see it, more or less.
>
> > and how much of this is about the emotional
> > response of vegetarians to certain foods, some of which seems to be
> > shaped by when these people ate meat, or at least have allowed the
> > meat-eating sector to help form their expectations.
>
> That's also true.  I'm not a big fan of meat-substitute vegetarianism
> (the sort of thing that gives you tofu meatloaf) and I don't really
> understand vegetarians, especially ethical vegetarians, who do it.  I'd
> like to educate those peoples' palates a bit, introduce them to some
> interesting and tasty period dishes that showcase vegetables *as*
> vegetables, not as something pretending to be meat.  But there is still
> a nutritional requirement for protein, which needs to be met somehow.
>
> 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"
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