Pleasure feast

 After a bout with the bubonic plague (or a close facsimile of it), I take you back to a time of merriment and bad puns.  Anyone who has ever been to a renaissance festival knows exactly what I am talking about.  This Fun Frank Friday was actually done on Saturday at the Arizona Renaissance Festival in Apache Junction.

The Pleasure Feast has two sittings per day, one at noon and the other at 2:30.  If you are planning to go, reserve ahead as some times do sell out.  We were actually lucky that we did because both times on this Saturday were sold out.  Since we had the 2:30 reservation we actually had time to wander the fair.  If you haven't been, there are a few shows I would like to recommend.  "Hey Nunnie Nunnie" is a classic that has been at this fair for 13 seasons.  For the kids, I recommend the "Wyld Men" so they can see how much fun it is to play in the mud.  I also recommend the "Ded Bob Show" as long as you don't have children with you or mind the adult oriented humor.

As time for our reservations grew closer, we moved over to the Hall that hosts the Feast.  The building resembles a medieval village tavern.  This is where we were greeted by "Motley Crew" or group of king's fools who certainly know how to act the part.  They serenaded us with silly songs and made us groan with their punny jokes.  The fools were interrupted by the heralding trumpeters, which signaled the arrival of the Sheriff.  He stepped up on the platform and introduced our hosts for the feast, which he didn't speak to highly of.  Our hosts were known as the Feastmaster and the Lord of Leftovers (lol).  The Feastmaster is a Scotsman and the LOL is an English gentleman.  These two characters were true to their stereotypes with the Englishman making cracks about the Scotsman and his sheep while the Scot made jokes about how the Englishman was light in the loafers with a dainty bell he called a "ding-a-ling".
The Feastmaster called out the names of diners and instructed them as to which side of the dining hall they were seated on.  As you enter the large hall, you saw long tables along each of the walls with a large center area left open.   Along the tables, each group's place cards indicated your seat.
The menu for this year's feast was Italian cuisine.  So the first of five courses was the Antipasta which consisted of a handful of grapes (which I promptly traded to Patti's plate for a handful of cheese),  white cheese slices, a cherry tomato stuffed with green olives, a soft green onion cheese ball and a handful of pinenuts on top of leafy lettuce.

Beverages were limited to beer, wine, ice tea or water. But you do get to keep that cool blue goblet as a souvenir.  Each course was first announced by the feast herald and we were expected to stand when the servers entered the room.  This was difficult to do as we were crowded together at the tables and the stools we sat on did not move easily.  The table and stools did give it more medieval authenticity despite being difficult for us modern folk to maneuver them.  Each course was also accompanied by entertainers.  During the Antipasta it was Feastmaster and the LOL cracking jokes at each other until the Sheriff showed up and explained the rules of the feast.  The fun part of this were that we were encouraged to bang on the tables and make a lot of noise.  Reminded me a lot of my younger days.

The next course was the Soup.  It was a fresh tomato bisque.  I'm not a fan of tomato soup, mainly I tend to find it boring and bland.  But this soup was surprising delicious.  The chunks of fresh tomato gave it texture while the white wine and herbs in the cream complimented the flavor.  Our entertainment for this course was traditional folk dancers with sticks.  That's pretty much all I want to say about them.  I wasn't that impressed with them despite the attempts at slapstick humor as they hit each other over the head with foil pans.



 The next course was our salad.   A basic lettuce with too much Cesar dressing.  I must compliment them on the croutons which were well made and obviously fresh rather than the stale hard chips that you find in most restaurants.  With the third course also came our third round of entertainment.  The royal family and court led by the Queen paraded around the Hall and spoke with each of the guests, making sure that the diners were treated well and enjoying their meal.  It was great to see the queen lead her court out in a conga line.

By this time, I actually started feeling a little full.  I didn't think I had eaten that much earlier but then again it could have been the slices of bread that I indulged in from the bread basket.  So here we go for course number four, the Entree.  Not a choice of Prime Rib OR chicken but rather you get both, served with sides of bowtie pasta in a tomato sauce and a serving of sauteed carrots and zucchini.  The highlight of the entree for me,  I must admit was definitely the chicken.  The breast of chicken was moist and tender topped with sauteed olives, tomatoes, onions and a dash of white wine and herbs.  The mixed vegetables were excellent as well (Patti could not get enough of the carrots so I gave her mine).  Throughout this whole meal I actually expected to food to be more processed (for example from a can or a bottle) but was pleasantly surprised at how fresh the ingredients were.  It actually made this meal.  With this course the entertainment was exotic belly dancers.  Patti quickly told me to stop staring at the belly dancers.  I told her I was only watching their feet {wink wink}.

So out comes the herald to announce our final course which is dessert.  I think this was my favorite course.  A yellow cake with chocolate mouse, chocolate frosting topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  A small drizzle of cherry sauce accompanied it all on the plate.  The cake was very light and sweet but not too rich or filling.  The tartness of the cherry and strawberry was a good balance for the sweet mousse and frosting.  With our final course we also had our final entertainment, the bagpipes and drum group called Tartanic.  Since I had a chance to gawk at belly dancers, Patti had an equal chance to gawk at men in kilts.  She adeptly distracted me from this fact by giving me half of her cake.

The musicians played traditional Scottish tunes on the bagpipes accompanied by two large drums which gave it an almost rock and roll sound as well.  The last five minutes of their set, the serving wenches decided to borrow peoples digital cameras and take covert pictures of what was truly under the kilts.  To get an idea of what they sound like, click on the video.  Disclaimer though, the clip doesn't do justice to the richness of the drums.


 So if you are in the mood to wear a silly hat and can indulge a pun or two, take some friends and head out to the Pleasure Feast at the Arizona Renaissance Festival.  If you haven't tried medieval yet, try it now.