Newcomers' Feast
Was last Saturday night. Most will know that tatianiska and I were doing the cooking for this. It's the first time that I've cooked for quite so many - it was over 100 people.
It was definitely a learning experience. I think that, generally, the food was fine. It would have been nice to get the third remove out a bit sooner - but then, it would have been nice to have a little more help in the kitchen from an earlier time. A lot of the help promised was 'at the tourney'. I guess we should have been more specific and said we will want helpers from midday! It's a learning thing.
Fortunately, Styvyn and Daniel were awesome helpers and worked pretty much non-stop for the whole afternoon and evening. Good thing that Styvyn didn't want to go to the tourney that day.
Another thing that I learned is that it's not a good idea to leave anything to the Saturday morning to pick up - or make sure you pick it up earlier in the morning. The one hour trip from Marrickville to the venue at Croyden was frustratingly slow.
For the dishes I made, I was a bit disappointed with the meatballs - but it was mainly because they'd had to stay warming in the oven for a while and had dried out a bit. On the other hand, I think that the Sardamone (a spiced lamb dish) was as good as I'd ever made it. And the rice pudding was pretty good - but it's hard to go wrong with that.
I think that the food was reasonably well received, though I didn't get much of a chance to socialise and get proper feedback.
After the feast, got home and slept for 12 hours!
On related matters, Tatya and I went to the market on Friday morning. It's the first time I've actually been to it. All I can say is that forklift drivers are insane! I don't think I'd get up early to go there just for normal shopping, and determining quality of things in boxes was difficult.
It was definitely a learning experience. I think that, generally, the food was fine. It would have been nice to get the third remove out a bit sooner - but then, it would have been nice to have a little more help in the kitchen from an earlier time. A lot of the help promised was 'at the tourney'. I guess we should have been more specific and said we will want helpers from midday! It's a learning thing.
Fortunately, Styvyn and Daniel were awesome helpers and worked pretty much non-stop for the whole afternoon and evening. Good thing that Styvyn didn't want to go to the tourney that day.
Another thing that I learned is that it's not a good idea to leave anything to the Saturday morning to pick up - or make sure you pick it up earlier in the morning. The one hour trip from Marrickville to the venue at Croyden was frustratingly slow.
For the dishes I made, I was a bit disappointed with the meatballs - but it was mainly because they'd had to stay warming in the oven for a while and had dried out a bit. On the other hand, I think that the Sardamone (a spiced lamb dish) was as good as I'd ever made it. And the rice pudding was pretty good - but it's hard to go wrong with that.
I think that the food was reasonably well received, though I didn't get much of a chance to socialise and get proper feedback.
After the feast, got home and slept for 12 hours!
On related matters, Tatya and I went to the market on Friday morning. It's the first time I've actually been to it. All I can say is that forklift drivers are insane! I don't think I'd get up early to go there just for normal shopping, and determining quality of things in boxes was difficult.