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

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

as it turns out, my grrl was served some habanero strawberry - the container wasn't very well labeled, and the server wasn't aware that she does not, and cannot tolerate spicy food, we're talking black pepper and salt as an extreme for her. she was most not happy for sometime after. perhaps such flavors should have their own table? seems like a bit too much trouble already.

Interesting point. Where do we stop on the specific labeling and separation? What percentage of the population can't deal with spice, etc.

Maybe at least clearer labeling would be a start*; I'd submit that religious/quasireligious* issues with an ingredient class are sufficient to be worth attempting to help not get X into Y, as well.


*At the Hot Foods party there was a star system identifying vegetarian foods and how spicy a given food was. Coloured tape around the tubs could work to identify nonvegetarian or spicy ice creams; if you just don't like mangoes it's easier to look specifically at anything that might be one.

[larksdream]

Actually, the habanero evil came from a melty bit that joined some strawberry kiwi I was trying from someone else's plate. Not much to do about that... but boy did it suck. *G*

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

No, not much to do on that one :) I guess lesson learned to ask whether proffering someone has anything hot in their bowl...

[larksdream]

I was so paranoid after that, I wouldn't even have any from a bucket until I asked a nearby person who was having some to tell me if it was spicy. I'm a REAL lightweight when it comes to hot foods. *G*

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Sorry; perhaps I should have said instead, "if you just don't like kiwi."

Fscking hell. Some things are easy to tackle and will make a fair number of people happier, and some things are a little harder.

You'll notice I also offered suggestions re allergies.

And we've also discussed the difference between sensitivity and true allergy.

AND a few years back we even had a soy free table so that someone with a soy allergy could have a selection of ice cream, too. Most of the ice cream is soy free anyway, but these were known to be, and served separately so that they wouldn't be contaminated.

As you pointed out in another subthread, if you're so incredibly allergic that things have to be washed like crazy to not kill you, you should probably not be trying to handle this in the first place. Otherwise, you've got an allergy that we can probably figure out how to help you not run into. Hopefully it was mentioned in the handy-dandy-medical-things-the-concom-need-to-know.

In any case, given that in other subthreads I did make suggestions for allergies (if someone's quite allergic to basil, perhaps using a specific colour scoop for the basil and asking people to not use that scoop on other ice creams would be an idea) I'm somewhat unhappy that you're telling me I'm ignoring what matters and emphasizing what doesn't.

Crikey. I'm omnivorous and if I'm sensitive to some foods I'm oblivious to it.

But if a significant subset of people would be happier with clearer labeling and maybe some separation between certain ice cream types I'm not sure I understand why kicking around possible ways to manage this is so upsetting to you.