All meals are provided from Friday night through to Sunday lunch and include options for most dietary issues
Friday night will feature a Mongolian-style barbecue. Naan a flat bread, onto which you put the sliced up Asian vegetables you want. Proteins will be chicken, beef or firm tofu.
Breakfasts are simple and include hot and cold options: some cereals, eggs, mushrooms, bacon, breads for toast etc. (GF and a variety of milks will be provided). Fruit juice, tea, coffee.
Lunches will be our usual cold collation consisting of various proteins, salads, bread, fruit, nuts, etc.
Biscuits (GFO) and fruit will be provided for morning and afternoon snacks.
Saturday night will feature an East meets West feast, featuring recipes from the breadth of the Mongolian Empire.
Secondary sources in translation: Soup for the Qan [13th century Yuan Chinese Medical treatise] and The Prince of Transylvania’s Court Cookbook [16th century Balkan Mongolian fusion].
Please advise any specific food allergies or preferences when booking.
If you would like to gain experience in an event kitchen, please email the event steward with KITCHEN as the subject, or as part of your booking.
Mongolian Cuisine
The Mongolian Khanate ruled from China in the Far East, to the borders of India in the South; and they conquered all the Stans (lands) in the West up to the Balkan Mountains. They even fought the Rus in winter, and conquered them.
They shared their foods with the West and took western food ideas back with them. Chinese cooks fused the foods of their Mongolian overlords with their own Eastern patterns of eating. The later Transylvanians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc also fused the Mongolian food with their historical foods. So the range of foods included come from as far afield as Vietnam and India in the south, Spain in the West, and everything in between.
Wanting to keep the food as Mongolian as possible, recipes from both books and centuries were compared. We chose recipes that were similar or had similar ingredient with different sauces, showcasing the difference between the ends of the Empire.
One of our main considerations was providing food that would be edible by those with dietary issues as well as delicious for everyone else. Why? Well,out of the first 30 people booked, 11 had food allergies, intolerances or cultural food requirements. So, Soup for the Qan was a great choice as our base cookbook; as it has a medical basis and has food for the sick, with instructions for increasing chi, or curing indigestion, etc. However, this is not how the average person would eat; so then, we came forward in time and examined dining culture in both east and west of the Empire from 16th to 20th centuries and worked back to compare to those original recipes.
As usual at Border War, the feast is a simple one course buffet; although this year, due to the unusual food service, we will have people serving the buffet. We will also be providing a ‘dessert’ buffet, fruit, nibbles, etc for those with space left.
This year the feast will start with a bread-breaking ceremony.
Then the buffet includes: Seu (Pomegranate) Soup. A thin vegetarian version of this simple broth, served with side dishes, from which diners will select what they can eat or enjoy eating: Asian mushrooms, bean sprouts, water chestnuts or bamboo shoots, spring onions, pickled ginger, one of the Chinese cabbage family (dependent on what is available when we do our shop). Proteins are Silky Tofu or Cardamom Chicken.
There will be two Plov (Pilau, Pilaf) dishes: Lamb Pilau with Red Rice, and, Chickpea and Edamame Pilau with Saffron Rice. Both have carrots in them but only the lamb one will have onions in it. These will also be served with Shakarob (Uzbek for side dishes); traditionally they are something sweet, something bitter, something salty, something crunchy. We will have fruit pastes, nuts, pickled vegies. People can choose which they have and which they do not want.
The next dish is Beef in a Black Bean Sauce… being made from scratch by our wonderful cooks – so no MSG added to the sauce.
Then we have Turmeric Crusted ‘Golden’ Fish, small fingers of fried white fish, or Turmeric Crusted ‘Golden’ Not Fish which is made from Firm Tofu.
Finally from the western end of the Empire, Spinach in Sour Cream Sauce and Sauerkraut with Sour Cherries.
After the buffet is cleared away, nibbles will be set out, including some little pastries, filled with cheese, fruit or custard, also a platter of Eastern fruits, stone fruits, mandarins, and the like.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Contact via the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SCABordescros) or at borderwar@bordescros.lochac.sca.org