Conflux banquet theme!!
I have permission! I have permission! It’s time to announce the theme of next year’s Conflux Banquet.
We’re cheating madly next year. We so loved the cocktails this year that pre-dinner drinks and etceteras shall be all themed “Mardi Gras 1945.”
The dinner itself won’t be twentieth century, though it shall definitely have the flavour of the South. In fact, the dinner is to be set in Louisiana in 1883. We’re calling it Southern Gothic.
Mostly Australians think of Louisiana and New Orleans as synonymous, which would make this dinner rather vampiric, given the tradition of New Orleans horror writers, but it’s nothing like that. Louisiana is a big state and New Orleans is one corner of it and we’ve gone for quite the other corner. There was an elegant French-influenced cuisine in the south-west, you see, hidden in the dark bayous (poetically speaking) and given that Conflux attendees love their fine French food, we thought that would give us fun food to serve. It also means we get pirates and ghosts and Spanish moss.
I’m going to be learning how to menu plan Louisianan food without gumbo or po-boys. As usual, I’m not doing it alone. In fact, this year I shall need particular help with certain dishes. Testing won’t start till early New Year (now is my time for sorting out the basic menu structure and work out just how far Canberra in October can provide basic ingredients from an entirely different climate – this will be a Gulf coast menu, after all) but I’m happy to take names and eventually get back to you with yummy food to cook. I’ll be putting forward another call for testers when I have my first collection of recipes to be tested, though, so maybe you should just enjoy your Thanksgiving and your Christmas for now and think of bayou Louisiana early in the new year.
We’ve even decided which bayou the dinner will be near, in case you want to know. It’s Contraband Bayou. So many pirate stories! I have yet to learn the ghost stories and other horror, but I bet it’s there. My publisher showed me pictures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in that region and these days it’s bright and modern, but it looked dangerous back then. This time travel is going to be so cool on so many levels!
November 29th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Oh hey this looks like fun. I’d love to try out a recipe or two for you when the time comes. Put me on the list please.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thank you! Next year, expect interesting recipes :). (it sounds like a horoscope, doesn’t it?)