[Sca-cooks] Minor rant Re: An Event Without a Feast, was Cookery book at Longleat House?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Anne-Marie wrote:
>I love interkingdom anthropology :)
>
>I think its important to remember that the word "feast" can have 
>very different connoations to different people based on what they're 
>used to, etc.

Excellent point.

>to me, a "feast" is an event that you sit down at a table and food, 
>prepared by someone else, is brought to you. It is often a multi 
>course meal and to my mind, requires certain standards in terms of 
>authenticity and panache :)

This is definitely my preferred feast, as i enjoy historic accuracy 
in the recipes and ingredients used.

>other food options can include the buffet line, a potluck, a dinner 
>(ie a simpler meal, single course), bbq, lunch counter, bag lunches, 
>a la carte, merchants, bake sale, tavern/bar with snacks...the list 
>goes on and on.
>
>but to me, none of these are a FEAST. they are food and lovely to 
>have but not a feast.

Some of our feasts are buffet / potluck for various reasons, often 
because the host group doesn't have the funds for a "real" feast, and 
these are more feast-like if there are tables and chairs to eat at.

For example, the Shire of Crosston Dance Ball is an indoor event 
usually in late January. Dance classes begin around noon and the Ball 
begins aroun 5 or 6 PM. Is there food? Well, that depends...

Often in the past there was no food at all - a few folks brought 
their own, but people often went to local fast food places or small 
restaurants between the end of classes and the beginning of the ball. 
Then there were a few pot-luck buffets with no tables - the food 
varied greatly, mostly not period. Then there were a few with period 
feasts - these were big money losers. When i autocratted in 2008 the 
Shire could fund no feast. So i organized a potluck dinner which had 
all period food (yay!) and tables to eat at in the late 
afternoon/early evening - early there were multiple tables, gradually 
tables were removed so that by early evening there were few. However, 
certain proponents of dance feel any food takes away from time to 
dance, so this year, err, rather January 2010, there will be no food 
at all.

>do we have events without a feast at them? you bet.

Yup, we've got 'em - pretty much every camping event.

>do we have events without food being offered at them? yes, but rarely.

Yes, and that is usually the case - no food offered - BYO - during 
camping season from March (or February if one counts attendance at 
Estrella War in Arizona) through early November.

Heavy "feast season" is November and December (i misspoke earlier 
when i mentioned only December).

Most months of the year there may be one or two feasts somewhere 
offered by a branch - some meet your definition of a feast, some do 
not, but they're still called feasts around here :-)
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita