Meat Ice creams

[donnad.livejournal.com]

There has been a lot of discussion going on over at this post. I was going to respond over there but figured it would just get lost in the shuffle.

I would like to try to clarify what I believe is Anns's complaint about meat ice creams. Ann correct me if I am wrong here.

Disclaimer: I am an omnivore, I eat meat. I do not like chicken liver at all therefore the thought of a chicken liver ice cream is a major squick for me. I have allergies to many other foods, many of them were made into ice creams this year, I actually had a run-in (so to speak) with one of those foods this year(mango if anyone is curious.)
I do not keep kosher.

So here is my take on this.

Say you have a table with several buckets of ice cream and one scoop and a bucket of rinse water.
First person, takes a scoop of the chicken liver ice cream, puts the scoop in the water, the water is now contaminated with chicken liver ice cream melt. Next person takes the scoop and scoops into the mango ice cream and puts the scoop back in the water. Mango ice cream is now contaminated with chicken liver water. Water is now contaminated with chicken liver and mango. Next one comes along, scoops into the chocolate ice cream, scoop goes back in the water, chocolate ice cream is now contaminated with the chicken liver and the mango. Water is now contaminated with chicken liver, mango and chocolate.

I come along, and I want vanilla. I take the scoop and proceed to contaminate the vanilla with chicken liver, mango and chocolate. Well, I am personally allergic to mango. I actually can't have the vanilla I want without having to deal with the contamination from the water of chicken liver, chocolate and mango melt. Thus I can't even have vanilla unless I use my own personal scoop, which BTW would be contaminated by anything else I may have dipped into prior to coming to the vanilla, thus contaminating the vaniila for someone else.

I think this is the issue at hand. How do we deal with stopping the cross contamination of dairy to non-dairy and meat to dairy/non-dairy?

Personally I think the meat ice creams are an interesting experiment and I don't want to discourage experimentation but... The situation could be easily remedied by a separation of them to a small table by themselves with their own scoops.

I think a separation of flavors based on type is a really a good idea for future Baitcons. The sorbets get a table, non-dairy/soy or coconut based on one table, the *hot* ice creams (like habanero) on another, the regular ice creams on one, and the meat on yet another. It would help to avoid cross contamination of dairy into meat, dairy into soy and other non-dairy flavors.



Now as for the other issue she raised. I too think that the person walking around with the torn t-shirt barely covering his privates was out of place, especially with so many young kids around. Call me a prude, but IMO, in the house area one should be a bit more modest. If it had been a speedo swim suit, it would have been fine. Or down at the stream, I wouldn't have blinked twice. But in the main common areas, where anyone could have driven in off the street he should have had a bit more modesty. I can only imagine what the owners of the property would have said/done had they decided to visit our little gathering and seen him.

Comments

[wotw]

One problem with a separate table is that it's nice to
find a wide variety on a single table so you don't have
to run around and spend time working your way through
multiple crowds. I might want to try the chicken liver,
but I'm unlikely to be happy with *only* meats.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Hm. Sections on a table? Add a masking tape spacer? Or little tray tables in a "here's the separate section"?

BTW, completely off topic but whilst I'm responding to you: Mexoryl Sunscreen (http://www.google.com/search?q=mexoryl&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official)

[istemi.livejournal.com]

Sections on a table? Add a masking tape spacer? Or little tray tables in a "here's the separate section"?

I don't see that lasting through the first few minutes of pushing and grabbing.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Tray tables, then. Might not be very stable, though.

Or those tables that people sometimes set up in their tents? Seem to be small and portable.

Or the lower suggestion of separate scoops for certain flavors.

Or the other lower suggestion of everybody bringing a scoop to Baitcon, at which point there are 150 available :) At which point we tape a long string to the scoop and to its tub.

[istemi.livejournal.com]

Those are some good ideas. They don't rely on people paying attention.

Or everyone with dietary concerns or who gets tired of fighting to get a scoop, any scoop, bring their own and wipe it between flavors.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

The latter bit, though, doesn't protect against the habanero already having gotten on the chicken liver.

There's also a worthwhile distinction to be made between religiously averse, sensitive, and deathly allergic.

A few years back gkrikket's girlfriend (I've lost her name this moment) was deathly allergic to soy. That was worth a separate table devoted to known nonsoy touched flavors*, and an announcement to not bring scoops to or from that table. But there were also a full table's worth of flavors that filled that table.

*it continues to boggle me how much soy gets into everything - just about all commercial breads, for example.

Special Dispensation?

[keith-m043.livejournal.com]

we could pick out the few people that have deathly allergies and put together plates of a select number of flavours (I pick out of the air the number seven) of their choosing, before the cattle call starts. This might be good to do for the disabled as well.

Re: Special Dispensation?

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with the select flavors in advance idea. I wouldn't have spent a good chunk of Saturday night in a fetal position on the couch because something with milk was labeled milk-free.

Re: Special Dispensation?

[cutieperson]

speaking as The Girl in the Wheelchair, i was rather impressed and pleased with Mark for letting me grab spoonfulls of ice cream before they got sent to the tables.

it does slow down the process a little, what with needing to get lids off, but it didn't seem too bad.

Re: Special Dispensation?

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're bbbsq! :)

Re: Special Dispensation?

[cutieperson]

g, not q, but yes.

should i be worried at that reaction? :)

Re: Special Dispensation?

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

You show up in a lot of my other friends pages :)

Re: Special Dispensation?

[cutieperson]

ah :)

Re: Special Dispensation?

[underwatercolor.livejournal.com]

It didn't really get in the way; I was glad they did that, too. :)