Titanic Party?

Haven't had a chance to pick this up yet - has anyone read about the meals on the Titanic right before it went down? Yes, there is a book about it.



The whole menu is posted here with some commentary: http://www.armchair.com/recipe/titanic1.html

There were 10 courses, so one might want to pick and choose, but it strikes me as a possible theme dinner source. Take a look on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/078686303X?tag=thetasteofmem-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=078686303X&adid=0RMWDCKJ35EZ7KNFG8FK&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.armchair.com%2Frecipe%2Ftitanic1.html


I'd like a table near the lifeboats......

We did this a number of years ago with a bunch of friends. Each couple was responsible for a course and we all dressed up for it. It was a lot of fun and the food was quite good.

It would probably be difficult to match the wine-list…

And you might want a string quintet playing "Nearer My God to Thee"

Sounds like fun in fact.

PS EDIT -- I ordered a used copy of the book from Amazon 3rd party. Looking forward to it. One of the Amazon reviews pointed out that even the "cheap" passengers on the Titanic ate better breakfasts than most of us. They have menus for the rich folks as well as the poorer folks.

One of my favorite stories from the book quoted in the Amazon reviews -- one woman who survived the wreck and had her fortune intact -- and did good things with it in the 1920's, went broke in the 1929 crash. Someone was writing a book about the Titanic and found her, living in a cold water flat somewhere, and thought he would remind her of the old days so he bought a jar of caviar to give her a taste. She sniffed and said "you call THAT caviar?!?"

I see a movie a la "Julia and Julia".

[Jenise]

The group I had dinner with on Sat nite did this as a theme dinner a few years ago, and like Mikes friends they did all dress up pretty fierce. I wasn't there but saw pix---everyone looked amazing, and of course with this group the wine and food would have been equally so.

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

[Robin Garr]

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

So Lou, what year do you think it will be before it's okay to have "Last Night at Windows on the World" parties?

We do very mundane themed dinner events : December Dumpling; Santa Lucia Winter Solstice; February Fondu aka Dipping ; Spaghetti on the Driveway; Freezer Raid; Ethnic Extravaganza. No black tie events yet

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

So Lou, what year do you think it will be before it's okay to have "Last Night at Windows on the World" parties?

It was only about a week after 9/11 when a four-color-glossy booklet vendor showed me some spectacular pictures of the buildings consumed in a jet-fuel-driven fireball. He asked me if I thought it was OK to sell them yet.

I suggested he wait a little longer.

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

But, Lou, not all of us have personal memories of the event the way you do.

Mark Lipton

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

But, Lou, not all of us have personal memories of the event the way you do.

Mark Lipton

Hate to admit it but my wife laughed loudly reading your post.
I'll get even, but it's so difficult to be critical about anything and everything in Indiana that hasn't been said before.

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

So Lou, what year do you think it will be before it's okay to have "Last Night at Windows on the World" parties?

Interesting, Robin, I just would have absolutely no interest in a "Windows on the World" party and I don't think it has anything to do with it being "too soon." I'm trying to understand why a Titanic dinner sounds fascinating and WOTW party sounds completely pointless. I think that it's because the sinking of the Titanic was in a real way the end of an era. The whole Victorian world, particularly the upper class Victorian world just went to Hell with World War One and various social and economic upheavals. We watch Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey with the same kind of interest as movies about the Titanic. "A Night to Remember" was made 40+ years after the Titanic sunk which probably gave enough time that most of the survivors were gone, but I don't think that was the beginning of public fascination with the ship and the disaster.

The meal would be interesting because nobody dines that way any more, and in that way it's like trying to recreate Babette's Feast or nearly any menu from a luxurious 19th century feast. It's daunting to realize that for some of those, to do it right you'd need 2 pounds of black truffles or half a gallon of caviar.

I don't reallyt think that the Titanic thing is anything like the rather macabre fascination with things like last meals (Google it, I'm not even going to post a link - they pretty much disgust me).

I think you hit it right - it features a bygone lifestyle and it just happens to tag it to an event that most people are familiar with. I suppose it could justr as easily be another event - perhaps an inauguration or coronation dinner or some such. Feel free to post any interesting menus from that sort of dinner.

I'll make a start:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 35763.html

http://www.thedailymeal.com/10-famous-feasts

[Jenise]

These posts show how time softens and changes how we see events. A short time after the Titanic went down I don't think anyone would consider the theme of your evening appropriate.

Of course not. But why read in disrespect where none's intended? If everything on this planet stayed sacred for ever, it would be a dull, dull place. For this group the October tasting is always a dress-up, theme event for the purpose of exciting imagination on every level. A costumed dinner party. This year it was Dress Like an Italian. Another year it was the dinner from the movie, Tom Jones. At the Titanic dinner, which I didn't attend, I remember seeing a picture of our friend Gary in a tuxedo, complete with death palor makeup and a fish sticking out of his cumberbund. Would love to have been there!

"A Night to Remember" was made 40+ years after the Titanic sunk which probably gave enough time that most of the survivors were gone, but I don't think that was the beginning of public fascination with the ship and the disaster.

Actually, kinda yes: the book "A Night to Remember" was, indeed, the impetus for all the Titanic interest.