[Sca-cooks] Musing on Mongol

[Lilinah]

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

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