post-baitcon feedback

[quietann.livejournal.com]

My personal issues with baitcon are in my personal journal; however, there are a few things that IMHO need to change:

• Separate dishes/mixing equipment/etc. for any ice cream product containing meat. There are a lot of people involved who nominally keep kosher, and it's discomfiting to know that one's ice cream might have been prepared using the same equipment as, say, the chicken liver ice cream. (for that matter, I'd just ban meat-containing flavors entirely, but that's not my decision to make.)
  
• More whole wheat (not just wheat, whole wheat) bread, less white bread. We ran out of whole wheat by lunch on Saturday. (this suggestion passed on from Gregorian, who was amazingly polite about it, but still really would have preferred whole wheat bread for his peanut butter sandwich...)
  
• More tarpage for shade protection (may not be an issue if baitcon isn't at Mink Hollow anymore, but...)
  
• Re-reinforcement of the "modest dress" (ahem) requirement in and around the main area. There was one person in particular who seriously violated this. (insert serious snarkage here; I am trying to be polite.) Dancing naked in the rain, as usual, should be granted leniency.
  

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

I had a great time at Baitcon and the organizers did a great job. But this one area where things could be improved.

Separate dishes/mixing equipment/etc. for any ice cream product containing meat.

For several years, I've been trying to encourage a friend who keeps kosher and loves ice cream to come to Baitcon. In last night's email exchange I mentioned the meat ice creams, and their reply was "going to Baitcon and not being able to have ice cream would be kind of pathetic."

Vegetarians might also be a bit uncomfortable about having their non-meat ice cream served with a scoop (or made in a container) that was also used for meat ice cream.

Given how poorly the meat ice creams were rated, I don't think they would be missed. (Except for the machismo of being able to claim that they sampled one of the meat ice creams. :)

On a related issue, if the breakfast menu says "turkey sausage" will be served, when the turkey sausage runs out, please put out a sign next to the sausage that says "pork sausage". Fortunately, someone warned me that the sausages weren't turkey before I ate them.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Vegetarians might also be a bit uncomfortable about having their non-meat ice cream served with a scoop (or made in a container) that was also used for meat ice cream.

Perhaps they should use one of the rinsing buckets that are helpfully provided on the table next to the ice creams? :)

Sorry if this sounds snarky, but this strikes me as a non-problem. (And if it is, perhaps they should bring their own scoops.)

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Hm.
If someone cares sufficiently then a rinse isn't enough, even if a soap wash would be.

In general it's pretty hard to find a non [ingredient] kosher ice cream, and I can't really remember any from before this year.

I think it wouldn't be too hard to have any few meat containing ice creams stirred /served separately, much like we had a whole table one year devoted to non-soy ice creams.

While separate creation containers is more kosher specific, having separation in general for meat ice creams would be helpful for any vegetarians, too. One vegetarian friend hadn't heard the 'proscuitto' part of the gorganzola proscuitto balsamic fig; I provided that information just before sie was about to take a bite.* And sometimes labels come off and chicken liver looks a lot like rose...

*hopefully that was a good rather than bad thing for me to do; in any case I was thanked for it...

[ceo]

And sometimes (thankfully, not often) things are mislabeled, which caused one milk-allergic person an evening of gastrointestinal discomfort.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Yah. If it's who I think it was, I'm glad she's feeling better and glad she liked my vegan coconut amaretto. (Now to figure out how to make it stay frozen more than a few minutes.)

[donnad.livejournal.com]

On a related issue, if the breakfast menu says "turkey sausage" will be served, when the turkey sausage runs out, please put out a sign next to the sausage that says "pork sausage". Fortunately, someone warned me that the sausages weren't turkey before I ate them.

This may be a moot point, if we end up where we are trying to be next year, Pork products are not allowed on the property.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Does that mean that there will be no gorgonzola-prosciutto-sparkplug ice cream there?

[donnad.livejournal.com]

well, we can hope! :)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

no pork products? that seems kind of a strange restriction. any reason for that? any other surprises?

#

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

The venue in question is a Sufi retreat.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

On a related issue, if the breakfast menu says "turkey sausage" will be served, when the turkey sausage runs out, please put out a sign next to the sausage that says "pork sausage". Fortunately, someone warned me that the sausages weren't turkey before I ate them.

and a similar related issue, it would be SO useful, if when the veggie patties are served, and it's ANNOUNCED before they even hit the table that they are essentially reserved for actual veggie/vegans who cannot eat of the meat bonanza, that such a thing is respected.

they were in quite limited supply, as a result, my grrl was able to get ONE and i'm sure that most the people i saw immediately scarfing them down weren't veggies judging by the meats and fruit bats and orangutans on their plates.

#

[larksdream]

It's okay, I don't eat that much anyway. And people who saw the problem ended up arranging themselves so as to pounce on the incoming veggie patties for me, so that worked out okay.

But... fruit bat isn't vegetarian??? ;)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

well, at least you had people diving for them for you. i made sure to snag the one you got as well. they were flying off the plate, and that was the second serving too. oiy.

fruit bats are made of fruit!

#

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The same was true of the grilled veggies served with Saturday's dinner. They disappeared very quickly, along with both kinds of beans, and vegetarian folks were lacking full-meal options after that.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

In past years there was a request that omnivores leave the veggie stuff alone until such time as people were going back for seconds. That seemed to be a change this year...

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

there seemed to be a lot of veggies, and unlike the veggie patties, there was no awareness to leave the veggies of any sort alone. what's a burrito without beans (only saw one kind).

#

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Usually there's a distinction between vegetarian "entrees" and vegetable dishes or condiments. Beans, cheese, rice and often veggies are standard burrito ingredients almost everywhere; if omnivores were expected to stick strictly to meat and leave all of the other ingredients alone until later, that would have to be made much more explicit.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Perhaps part of the solution might be to put out the meat items first, let the hoards descend, and then once they're sated, put out the veggie stuff?

[sunspiral.livejournal.com]

Granted that the Chopped Liver ice cream didn't register as a Favorite Flavor, but at least 3/4 of the batch was consumed. This means that a reasonable number of people chose to try a culinary experience that many of them previously wouldn't even have imagined. Not sure how much of infinitehotel's fascinating Gorgonzola Prosciutto Fig ice cream was consumed, but it certainly expanded a lot of people's ideas of the possible as well. For the record, I didn't like it, but I would never presume to say that it wouldn't be missed if banned. And banned because it offends someone's religious beliefs? And they're going to pretend that anything coming out of a Baitcon kitchen is kosher?

I didn't create that flavor to be a gross-out or a practical joke, or even primarily for the shock value of it, I created it to prove that it works. And for the record, I thought it was yummy, and just what I wanted it to be. It was thoroughly worked out, tested and documented before Baitcon, just like I do with any other flavor. Experimenting with flavor possibilities is one of the things that the Baitcon ice cream making has always encouraged, and hopefully always will.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

:half smile: Perhaps the most disturbing thing for me about the Gorgonzola Prosciutto Balsamic Fig ice cream was that the balsamic figs disturbed me more than did the prosciutto.

I ended up giving my Baitcon cookbook to my friend who I visited down the road. 70 years old, running a farm by herself, and way totally chuffed by the recipes in the book. She commented that a goat cheese/prosciutto (perhaps ice cream) mix stuffed into figs might be a really good thing.

And yes, I liked the chicken liver ice cream and agree with [I forget who] that it tastes like it wants to be on bagels. Maybe a little more pureeing, somehow.

I completely agree that nothing should be banned. I can see it being worthwhile to separate non-milk from milk from meat flavours, such that one doesn't get the one in the other.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Well, to second Scott, I've never made a flavor at Baitcon as a gross-out or practical joke, and the Gorgonzola/Prosciutto/Fig wasn't intended in that way either. I love that combination of flavors and I wanted to prove that a savory ice cream could work. In hindsight, given the limited flavor boost added by the prosciutto, I would skip it in future versions and thus make it safe for non-meat and non-pork eaters. On the other hand, the flavor that didn't make it to this Baitcon was "Bacon", so the problem may crop up again in the future.

As far as the combo itself, it's not mine; Todd English used to serve a pizza with those components at Figs and included it in the restaurant cookbook. For me, it's the fig jam that makes the whole thing work, the acid cuts the fat of the cheese and meat and adds sweet/sour to the salt. I'm curious, what didn't you like about the figs in particular?

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I really couldn't taste the prosciutto either.

I didn't hate the figs or anything, but the big chunks of balsamic soaked figs were very strong compared to the rest of the ice cream, to the point where I found them overpowering. Smaller pieces might have worked better.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I tried the balsamic figs by themselves and thought they were fabulous. :) If the ice cream hadn't had prosciutto in it, I would have tried it. Chevre and fig ice cream might be interesting, too.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

And yes, I liked the chicken liver ice cream and agree with [I forget who] that it tastes like it wants to be on bagels.

that might have been me. also for the record, i didn't think the Chicken Liver was *bad* per se, just contextually wrong. I mentioned that it would be interesting to try as a spread on bagels or toast or something.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

At least this issue came up now, so it can be discussed and evaluated...