Monday 4 April 2011

Meat-Free Monday: Danish Pastry and Dancing

A few weeks ago I had the enormous privilege and pleasure of attending the ATS General Skills training with Carolena Nericcio. For American Tribal Style dancers, this is a Big Deal. Over 4 days, Carolena and her hosts/assistants Jesse, Philippa and Deana spent 20 hours cleaning up our technique, refining our understanding of the movement vocabulary and dancing the hell out of us. It was amazing and wonderful.


The only downside was the food. The caterers really let the hosts down. The lunches that were provided were vegetarian and vegan, to cater for the majority of the dancers. This shouldn't have been a problem. Vegetarian cuisine can and should be delicious and nutritious: it isn't difficult, expensive or time consuming to make amazing meals without meat. Unfortunately the caterers apparently have never heard of felafels and what they provided was at best uninteresting and not really adequate to fuel the amount of physical exercise we were doing.

This meant that I was eating enormous breakfasts of eggs and bacon, and then having egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch. After 4 days I was egged out.

When it came to the following weekend, and our cooked-breakfast blowout, I couldn't face another egg. It had to be pastry.

I followed this recipe for the laminated dough, and made the raisin swirls, just adding the zest of an orange for a bit of kick.

They were flakey, light, sweet and delicious. Just what I needed.

11 comments:

mscrankypants said...

People cooking vege food can sometimes forget protein sources instead of endless freakin' carbs. No wonder you were reaching for the eggs to help replenish your body.

The pics look like you all had a great time though!

Su-Lin said...

What a shame! Vegetarian food when done well can be so delicious!

(I used to take belly dancing classes too but never tried the American tribal style.)

Alicia Foodycat said...

Cranky - the vegan options were pretty much cucumber and carrot sandwiches. No attempt at protein. I did have a lovely time!

Su-Lin - I did cabaret style for several years before going over to tribal. Great fun!

kat said...

Some people just don't get a good meal can have no meat, so little imagination!

Simona said...

Your post reminded me of vegetarian meals on airplanes: you look at what they put on those trays and ask yourself whether the caterers think that vegetarian means you have no taste buds and a stomach that can handle only boiled rice. Nice photos!

Caroline said...

Wow that pastry looks gorgeous!

The dancing classes sound great, pity about the food.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Kat - so stupid when so much of the world's population doesn't eat meat!

Simona - I've never scrutinised airline vegetarian food. I suspect I would be horrified.

C - it was amazing. A great group of women too. I was just lucky I could eat the eggs and cheese!

Deb in Hawaii said...

Congratulations on your certificate--it looks like a wonderful time despite the food. ;-)
The raisin swirls look delicious.

Dharm said...

You are a tribal dancer!! So cool! The pastry looks great too!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Deb - thanks! I might even get it framed.

Dharm - I sure am! The pastry will definitely be repeated.

grace said...

egged out, eh? too bad! you'll get your taste for them back soon, no doubt. in the meantime, you really went all out with these pastries--laminated dough is no small undertaking! lovely work indeed. :)

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