[Sca-cooks] food dislikes, cultural mores and being polite. was Re: Re: P B & J

[David Friedman]

I wrote:

>>I wonder if part of the problem is that you are imagining a dinner 
>>party with lots of guests and lots of dishes, Judith a more 
>>intimate occasion with one or two guests and a much smaller range 
>>of dishes.
>
>Yes, of course I'm imagining one person or couple coming to my home, 
>not a whole army. My table seats four -- six, if two or three are 
>children.

Our table seats eight comfortably, although we can squeeze in one or two more.

>Even if I could serve a dozen at a time, though, I make one to three 
>entrees (that is, the salad or soup with which you 'enter' the 
>meal), one main dish, one dessert. This isn't a restaurant, it's my 
>home. When you eat by me, you're family.

I don't think it has anything to do with being a restaurant, although 
it might have something to do with the fact that both my wife and I 
cook, which makes doing more things easier. It may also have to do 
with the fact that, since cooking from early cookbooks is one of our 
interests, we like to provide guests a bigger sample of the cuisine 
than a single main dish provides. Typically we would have two main 
dishes, as well as whatever else is included in the dinner. And even 
if we have only one couple over, which is probably the most common 
pattern, there are four of us as well, or were until our daughter 
went off to college.

We would still, of course, prefer to know what our guests do or don't 
like and what they can't or won't eat, and we ask. But if it turns 
out that a guest can't eat one of the dishes, it's a smaller problem 
than it would be in your case.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com