[Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

An alternative to paper plates is disposable dining ware made of leaves. No, i don't mean finding them on site. They are commercially made. Probably more expensive than paper, not necessarily period for Europe (but fine for India), but less glaringly modern.

I buy them at Whole Foods and sometimes bring them to camping events to avoid a lot of washing up and because i don't want to risk breaking my irreplaceable expensive period-type Middle Eastern dinnerware (some by a Laurel in Australia, some by a Laurel from Kentucky).

When i ate at an Indian restaurant in Singapore back in the late 1970s, all diners communally sat on long benches at long tables. Someone came down the rows and slapped down a clean fresh leaf - large and long, having an area equivalent to a dinner plate, although not the shape - in front of newly arrived diners.

Then someone else came down the rows with a stainless steel "bucket" of rice, scooped out a serving and dumped it on the leaf. Then another person came by with a "bucket" of vegetarian "curry", and another with condiments.

One ate with one's hands. And when a diner was finished someone came a refuse bucket, and swept the leaf and crumbs off the table.

No washing up and all biodegradable. And not particularly Medieval European...

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)