[Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Sun Jul 5 11:07:37 PDT 2009
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)
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