[Sca-cooks] An imaginary feast

[Suey]

I am building and imaginary feast which is a lot better than a real 
feast because I have no economic limits! Now I have written that Ziryab 
prescribed:

first a liquid dish such as pottage served in individual bowls, consumed 
with spoons, then boiled meats or fish and then roasted meats or fish 
which were the most difficult to digest. Finally desserts consisting of 
fruit and sweets, "the sweetness of life" as the Spanish say. The Emir 
readily accepted this change.

So in my imaginary feast how many dishes should I present in each 
coarse? We are going by Ziryab's dictates. Between the first and second 
course we have a fine line between blancmanage and mirrauste. I know 
blancmange should go as a first course but what about mirrauste?
     I have gone over Mark Calderwood's Andalusan-Fst-msg -  8/30/09. 
His menu does not appear to have anything to do with Ziryab's explanations.
     Madrun (madrun) SCA Semi-Final "Final Menu" has a very interesting 
menu with the first course consisting of Catalan dishes, the second of 
Jewish and the third of Muslim and the desserts seem to be a mixture not 
specified.  Very clever as that is a brain buster. Again don't see 
Ziryab's prescription applied. Also these menus seem to push vegetables. 
Of course that reduces costs but is that reality for a banquet?
     In the real so called 'banquet' I did we only had one dish for each 
coarse and the first was blancmanage while the rest of the meal 
consisted of finger food. The second course and the desserts were finger 
foods.  We had two desserts. We were very tied down to expenses as this 
was a fund raiser so almonds and lamb were exceptions to the budget.
Suey