[Sca-cooks] siting table in Middle-eastern style.

[David Friedman]

>. . . not what they ate, but how the meal was structured.  How does 
>one properly set and serve a meal in the Holy Land, in period? 
>Anybody know of any references where I would start with to determine 
>the structure of the Islamic meal?

The Anonymous Andalusian (13th c.) discusses the question of how a 
feast is organized, but it's describing western Islamic practice 
which pretty clearly differed at the time from Middle Eastern 
practice due to some changes attributed to Ziryab, an influential 
cultural figure in, I think, the ninth century.

"Many of the great figures and their companions order that the 
separate dishes be placed on each table before the diners, one after 
another; and by my life, this is more beautiful than putting an 
uneaten mound all on the table, and it is more elegant, better-bred, 
and modern; this has been the practice of the people of al-Andalus 
and the West, of their rulers, great figures, and men of merit from 
the days of 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz[55] and the Banu Umayya to the 
present."

The discussion rejectes the old fashioned way of doing things, which 
seems to involve serving everything at once, in favor of the cultured 
modern way, which involves a sequence of courses--and it describes 
what the sequence is. The book is webbed on my site; the relevant 
part is:

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian3.htm#Heading125

My interpretation of the old fashioned way, which I gather is still 
the practice in the Middle East, is that you have a platter with a 
pile of rice, and the various things all on it, presumably on 
different parts of the pile. This makes serving much easier. It's how 
Elizabeth and I did our Islamic feast at Thirty Year.

My guess, but it's only a guess, is that one way of doing it is to 
use tray tables. The stands are in place, the trays are brought in, 
each with its pile of rice (perhaps on a big plate), with (say) three 
different main dishes, all served out on top of different parts of 
the pile. That would explain the prominence of tray tables.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com