[Sca-cooks] Thoughts about a neat feast

[Lilinah]

As for Gunthar's proposed feast, count me in! Sounds luxuriously - 
erotically - delicious. And at $20 to $25, it is not at all expensive.

Our feasts are regularly around $15 (if it's just a feast, that's the 
whole price - some events have a site fee for those who don't feast).

Then again, i live where $35 for a dinner is considered a moderate 
price. Expensive is when it's $50 or more. This doesn't mean i eat 
many $35 dinners. My consort and i have breakfast on Mondays (his day 
off) in a local and fairly typical breakfast place (far from fancy) 
and it costs about $10 for an omelet and a double cappuccino, not 
counting tax (8.75% - yes, we locals actually vote to increase our 
taxes) or tip.

So, $15 for an SCA feast of 4 or 5 courses with a half dozen dishes 
in each course is an amazing bargain.

As for the time spent at a feast, we have the Principality of the 
Mists Bardic Competition and Feast every September. One either pays 
the site fee and doesn't eat, or one pays both the site fee and the 
feast fee. The doors open at noon and the event tends to wrap up 
around 8 PM, and sometimes later. In between each course of the feast 
is a segment of the competition - it has 5 segments. There are also 
people who perform who are not in the competition. I've cooked for 
this a couple times.

We have other more ordinary feasts that start around 5 PM and end 
around 10 PM (not all day - just 5 hours). Feasts vary but tend to 
have 4 courses, sometimes more. Between courses there can be group 
dancing, magic performances, choral singing, story telling, etc. Most 
is impromptu. People also wander around and socialize.

When i read about feasts that sound like sprinting matches - each 
course follows the other with hardly a break, and people get cranky 
if there's more than 15 minutes between courses - i'm just amazed. 
These people seem to want or expect a restaurant style dinner, not a 
medieval dinner.

I guess i'm just spoiled here, but i love our long leisurely feasts.

BTW, I thought Hermes was the god of travelers, with his winged feet, 
travelers hat, and cloak. IIRC, Apollo, brother of Artemis, is the 
god of music, so you could work him into the feast, too.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita