I called it the Time Travelers' Dinner Party, as my friends and I are all as close to time travelers as it gets in NYC, what with all our historically-inspired jobs, events, reenactments, and more. I curated a menu inspired by historic food and drinks from the ancient era all the way up to the Edwardian era, encouraged my guests to wear clothing inspired by historic eras and figures, played appropriate music, and dressed like a Viking to play hostess!
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| Thank you so much Lindsey for this elegant photo! |
The decor...
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| The dining table |
The idea behind the decor is that I was trying to curate the look of a party designed by a literal time traveler. Now of course the kind of time traveling I do isn't literal - i.e. when I went to the Washington ball, I wasn't literally going back to 1789, just to a commemorative event - but if I did somehow magically travel through time, we all know I'd be the person to bring back souvenirs and decorate my apartment with them.
So in order to decorate, I did what I could with what I had, setting out candles (including tealights in my Hamilton/Burr shotglasses), mystical crystals and Viking runes, and even my Alexander Hamilton bobblehead! As I was dressed as a Viking - it's a historical era I have particular interest in, one that I study academically - I even hung my Viking drinking horn up on the lamp.
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| See? |
The paper plates and napkins were chosen to emulate the 18th and 19th centuries. Considering I was working with a very limited budget (I live in Brooklyn and I am poor) I think the decor was very successful. The one regret I have is that I wasn't able to set out a bouquet of fresh flowers. Flowers have been a staple at dinner parties since at least the Elizabethan era (as well as in Ancient Egypt, believe it or not) and it's unfortunate that I was unable to stop and get some before people came over.
At least there were flowers on the napkins and in the salad...
The food...
The menu was created so that every single item on it emulated a different era. I even included blurbs on the menu I printed, which read as follows:
VIKING CRISPBREAD AND SKYR
Archaeological records show rye was being planted as far back as the Viking Age, as it grew better than wheat in the Scandinavian climate. Thin, flat breads like this were baked over an open fire. Skyr, a yogurt-like cheese, was made in order to preserve milk, and is still eaten in Iceland today.
MEDIEVAL "SALLET"
Salads, or "sallets", were eaten in the medieval era, typically consisting of salad greens, herbs or "potherbs" such as mint, and a simple oil-based dressing. Edible flowers were added for colour.
18TH CENTURY "COTTAGE PIE"
Meat pies have been eaten as far back as Ancient Rome, but the potato-topped variety first appeared in the late 18th Century. While we would call this dish "Shepard's Pie", back then it was known as "Cottage Pie". Our version is made vegetarian with lentils - as fake meat didn't exist yet!
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| The delicious Cottage Pie - made with lentils and a LOT of thyme. |
These plum puffs were inspired by Marilla Cuthbert's plum puffs in the Anne of Green Gables books, the first of which was published in 1908.
DRINKS
Midas Touch beer (adapted from an Ancient Greek recipe)
Mulled Wine
Flavoured seltzer (lavender or elderflower)
Water available upon request
Of course, if anyone wants the recipe for any of the food items or for the mulled wine, leave a comment on this entry and I'll make a future entry with whatever recipe you'd like!
The music...
As you can see from the state of the buffet table in the photo above, I had to use a very un-historic Macbook to play the music. (But it is like ten years old, which is ancient for a laptop.) However, no dinner party is complete without a little soft background music to underscore the conversation, and iTunes is really convenient for both creating a long-ass playlist and for setting it on shuffle so that we never know what we'll hear next.
I wanted the playlist to be eclectic, but I didn't want it to favour any one historical era or region too much. It was like 6 hours long (obviously we didn't get through all of it but it set the mood alright), but the songs I picked for it tended to fall into the following basic categories:
Jazz! (The Andrews Sisters, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and more from the 1920s to the 1970s.)
Classical! (Mozart, Haydn, Chopin... and a lot of movie scores, including "This is Berk" from "How to Train Your Dragon")
Irish folk music! (Folk songs such as "The Foggy Dew", "Danny Boy", "The Rights of Man", and a whole lot of Irish reel on the violin.)
World music! (Ofra Haza's enchanting Hebrew ballads, Polish and Russian folk music, Spanish guitar, slow songs from Bollywood movies, Arabic tunes from a bellydancing CD, Icelandic lullabies.)
Neo-Victoriana! (Rasputina, Voltaire, Emilie Autumn, even some Steam Powered Giraffe!)
Medievalism! (Think Mediaeval Baebes, Loreena McKennitt, and Enya, as well as recordings of medieval ballads like "The Two Ravens" and "Yow and I and Amyas".)
And Postmodern Jukebox covers of modern pop songs! (peruse their youtube account for an example of what I'm talking about)
The party!
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| Me, my girl Lindsey, and the infamous "booze" teacup |
I had been worried that having a dinner party with such a strange theme wouldn't go over well, but the guests did seem to have fun, and despite the dishes all being inspired by different eras, the flavours of them worked well together. (It does help that I am a good cook.)
Honestly, planning it was a lot of fun. I can't wait to host my next one. Though maybe next time I'll pick one historical era. Or maybe I'll make it a potluck and save myself grocery money so I can actually afford some flowers, lmao.
-Nym-
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