[Sca-cooks] Dayboard-like Fighter Food

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> BREAD: Posters had mixed recommendations, some said yes, some seemed 
> to say no. At a War Collegium a number of fighters did want bread, so 
> we'll include it, and definitely pre-sliced.

Non-fighters always want it. If you have the staff, buy it in whole loaves 
and slice as needed-- people love this.
 
> PIES: I figure we'll make a bunch of savory pies - i've got one of 
> those things that cuts a whole round pie into eight slices at once, 
> although for this setting, baking in a big rectangle and cutting 
> squares might be better. I don't think we'll be making individual 
> pasties though. But the "fighter biscuits" might be good.

One-person items hold together better, so I would recommend small pasties, 
or bread dough wrapped around a filling, such as sausage, mushrooms or 
onions, to make rolls that are fist-sized or smaller. Whole pies cut up 
just don't hold together well enough to be 'quick/easy' in my experience.

You can also buy cheezy bread, either bread with cheese mixed in or topped 
with italian spices and cheese, premade, and slice it up.

> FRUIT: Is it better to have whole apples and pears or to halve or 
> slice them? If slices - how small or large?

I would tend to avoid apples and pears. They don't get a lot of takers. 
Stone fruit (plums, apricots, peaches) go better, and berries better 
still. Cut up melons are appreciated also, as long as the slices are 
rather small.

> HARD COOKED EGGS would be peeled ahead of time. I think it's really 
> too much to ask the fighters to peel them.

The trouble with peeled hard cooled eggs is a) they quickly get unsanitary 
and b) they take forever to peel.

> In some message people suggested carrying around trays of stuff 
> (pickles, orange wedges, olives...) to resurrection points. 

This works very well.

> >Roasted chicken is wonderful if it is off the bone. In fact, pretty much 
> >any
> >kind of roasted meat is welcome if there are no bones or sticks or 
> >whatever.
> >Just grab some and go. No sauces or stickiness, please.
> 
> We're going to have a clear broth, probably homemade chicken soup. So 
> we'll have the meat left over, off the bone.

Point: in the East, at least, fighters won't take soup. Even when it's 
somewhat chilly. 
 
> those big cans of, what was it ? College Inn ? Chicken Soup from some 
> time in my checkered past... No, no, don't cringe, we'll be making 
> our own.

A compromise would be Mrs. Grass' Chicken Noodle.
 
> Then someone recommended sekanjabin and someone else recommended 
> sweetened orange juice... I gather there are mixed feelings about 
> acidy stuff...

We've had good luck with both sekanjabin and ginger syrup drinks, as well 
as lemonade. I would stay away from full-strength or near-full-strength 
juices because of possible repeating.. but the bhoys and grrls do drink 
the other drinks which are less acid. 
 
> >I don't recommend spicy foods like summer sausage or pepperoni.
> Why not? I was imagining some nice garlicy dry salami. That's a bad idea?

I am reliably informed that having food repeat on you while wearing a helm 
is unpleasant. Except of course for jerky. (Don't ask.. I don't know. I 
think of dried beef as an ingredient, myself.)

> But i don't quite understand the taping the knives to the bowls. If 
> they're taped to the bowls, how can they be used?

String.
 
> >Is this food at a dayboard or food that is handed out? Sorry, I missed the
> >original posting.
> 
> Well, uh, we have no experience with this. I just assumed we'd have a 
> food station near the water bearers station, so folks could wander 
> over and grab stuff. I still haven't heard a thing from kingdom 
> fighters. Our kingdom list is having a discussion about the size and 
> location of Alaska, partly based on how it's shown on maps. More 
> important, i guess, than feeding fighters.

You're lucky. In my kingdom..... nevermind...
 
> Well, we were thinking of doing both. We could have fighter 
> refreshments out during the fighting, with some noshes for the 
> others, and put more food out as the fighting winds down, so fighters 
> could have some real food.

Yes. Defend the protein with your life, or the fighters will complain 
bitterly and call you nasty names. *sigh*
 
Beef and pickles and oranges. That's what they want when they come off the 
field. But if someone else got beef and they didn't... *shakes head*

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"In most communities it is illegal to cry .fire. in a crowded assembly. 
Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to  
manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political 
aims?" -- Dwight D. Eisenhower