[Sca-cooks] Musing on Mongol

[euriol]

Perhaps your facilities & logistics of the kitchen might be worth
exploring. How many vegetarians are common in your area? If it is just a
couple, you might decide to just say "sorry". If you think you'd have
enough for a table servings worth using meat-substitutes you can go that
direction.

Euriol

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:40:46 -0700,  wrote:
> I'm one of those who believe in serving historical food at SCA 
> events. I'm working up a Mongol feast, based largely, of course, on 
> the 14th C. book, "A Soup for the Qan", for late next year.
> 
> I'm in California and i think the biggest problem i face is finding 
> offerings for our local vegetarians. They've always been more than 
> gracious, no whiners or grand-standers. In all my previous feasts 
> except one, i've always made sure that the vegetarians could eat just 
> about everything but the meat.
> 
> But Mongol dishes are either meat, meat plus grains, or meat plus 
> grains plus vegetables. Not big on dishes without meat. The recipes 
> reflect Chinese, Turkish (i.e., Central Asian), and Southwest Asian 
> (i.e., 'Abbasid Arabic) influences, strongest on the Turkic and 
> Chinese - the Southwest Asian tends to be in spices used in a 
> basically Mongol dish.
> 
> So i'm trying to decide:
> -- Should i adapt some Mongolian recipes and make one table's worth 
> of dishes using non-meat substitutes?
> -- Should i make some Southwest Asian (i.e., Arabic) dishes for the 
> vegetarians? They're also not big on proteinaceous vegetarian 
> offerings, but there are some...
> -- Should i just just apologize and say, sorry, this is a meat-heavy
> feast?
> -- Or are there other options?
> 
> I'm not asking for folks to decide for me :-) but i'm looking for 
> suggestions, especially anyone who has worked with those Mongol 
> recipes.
> 
> And please, no rants about vegetarians. The ones around here are fine 
> folks who do not expect exceptional treatment, and have always been 
> appreciative that i've given them consideration.
>