[Sca-cooks] MK Coronation Feast Report (fwd)

[iasmin at comcast.net]

I compiled these up from my posts this morning to the Middle Kingdom Cooks email list ebcause I thought that people might be interested in reading about the MK coronation feast served this past weekend. Enjoy! -- Iasmin

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Overall the feast was pretty darned amazing. The service was excellent at
head table, where I was lucky enough to sit. And while the dishes came out
slowly (sometimes very slowly) within and between courses, the food was very
good. My congratulations to the cook, who not only cooked this his FIRST
feast but attended this coronation as perhaps his 5th or 6th event.

Let me tell you all about some of the dishes from the feast at TRMs
Coronation this past weekend in Grey Gargoyles....

- Bread, Chease & Fruit, to be on the table at time of seating. 

This in and of itself seems rather innocuous. Simple, adequate, nothing
spectacular in the names. But there was the food equivalent of crack cocaine
on the table: cheese stuffed dates. My god these were tasty. Dangerous for a
hypoglycemic. I logic'd myself into believing that the protein in the cheese
balanced the sugar in the dates. I was a fool. I don't regret eating my
first serving. Or my second. Or my third. They nearly left a food service
cookie tray (the kind you need to carry with two hands) at our table.
 
- Soup of Chicken

Probably one of the better soups I've had served at a feast. Ever. My only
complaint is that it needed salt and I am not normally one to salt my food.
Spinach with chicken in little meatball forms, in a nice broth. Hot. That
alone was amazing. Quite tasty.

- Build your own Salad

I think this dish threw a few people. Most didn't know what to do with the
ingredients because we didn't really have serving utensils to scoop them
out. I'm a caper fan and was overjoyed to have them on the tray. The beets
were excellent. The lettuce plentiful, though I think a spring mix would
have been better. But it was an excellent palate cleanser overall for me.

- Salmon Pie 

I was determined not to like this dish. I really don't like cooked fish much
at all. It's an old bias and one that's been difficult to overcome, largely
in part because people cook fish poorly. Give me rice and wasabi goodness
any day! But this pie. My god this pie. Duchess Arabella Silvermane and I
promised each other we'd try every dish at feast. We initiall took the
smallest slice of this pie and split it between us. The salmon was moist and
flaky, the crust done just right, and I think the only reason she got to the
pie plate for a second piece before me was because I was wearing Japanese
garb and trying desperately to keep from dipping my sleeves in the food.
Would that more feast stewards had the skill to cook fish such as this.

- Cabbage w/smoked Mutton 

At our end of head table we called this the cabbage-flavored butter and
bacon dish. It was all cabbage to be sure, but the flavor was so infused
with creamy, fatty goodness that we were hard pressed to keep from stuffing
ourselves with this dish. We really wanted to make it to the end of the
feast!
 
- Turce of Leeks 

The leeks were good, but not something that particularly stood out for me. However, the good lady to my right at head table kept muttering "These are great. These are great." One minute we had a small bowl of leeks and the next it was gone. 

- 2 Sauces Agraz (bacon, sage, grapes, garlic, salt & pepper) (butter,
turnips, apples, parsley) 

The sauces were particularly interesting but not whwat I expected. Both were
good in their own way but I think I liked the dish of the sour grapes better
than the apple sauce. The sour flavor paired better with the meat. My table
mates didn't agree with me much on this one I think. That's ok as it meant
more for me. :)
 
- Lamb roasted & braised

The roasted lamb was far superiour to the braised in my opinion. Done to
perfection and again served just right. I think His Grace, Sir Ragnvaldr,
who sat near me, absconded with an entire tray of his own. 

- Puree of root vegetables 

An excellent little dish and one that many people at our table commented on.
The bitterness of the vegetables were nicely balanced out. I did not eat
much of this dish as I was already overful. But it was a lovely creamy white
and the texture very pleasant.

- Apple Fritters 

This is the one dish I wasn't fond of. Perhaps the apple texture, or the
fact that the fritters weren't served hot. I'm still not sure. Maybe it was
the variety of apple that gave the flavor I wasn't fond off. If this was the
only dish I didn't care for, then I think that's fine. They were tasty, but
not to my taste. I know other people liked them.

- Rice Pudding 
- Cherries 

I cannot partake in most sweets because of bloodsugar problems, but let me
give you a little visual. Duchess Arabella, sitting next to me, is a small
woman. She regularly eats meat safely within inches of many members of the
Lost Boys and has yet to lose any appendages or her dinner to the thieves
that try to abscond with her food. Likely this is because of The Look. That
look of being a former Queen. The look of "Touch it and I'll kill you." The
look that sends most men quaking in their boots and rushing to do her
bidding for fear of Vengeance with a captial "V." 

Duchess Arabella ate the rice pudding with The Look. She got the whole bowl
to herself. :)

Assuming I'm remembering correctly, I believe he told me that his sources were "Ein Buch von Guter Spise," "Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welser," and Rumpolt's "Ein new Kochbuch." Don't quote me on that. I was trying really hard to talk to him and gorge myself at the same time. :)

Cheers, 

Iasmin "Please don't make me eat any more" de Cordoba