| |
What, No Sugarplums?
November/December 2006
photograph ©Mark Ostow
Dressing up is optional, and
roast suckling pig is a thing of the past, but every December, Yale still puts
on a holiday dinner for freshmen that recalls the university's gilded age. At
last year's event, pictured here, the opening "parade of comestibles" included
a gingerbread village and a chaud-froid -- that is, a chilled roast turkey covered with an
aspic glaze and vegetable ornament. (The chaud-froid is at left, atop rolls of sliced turkey with grapes.) The
decorations for the dinner also typically include between five and ten ice
sculptures. "At least one of them," says Commons manager John Swing '83, "gets
stolen, or broken in the attempt." As for the suckling pig, its demise wasn't a
cost-cutting measure, but a bow to a student body with varying opinions about
pork: the traditional roast whole pig with an apple in its mouth was ruled out
for "political and religious considerations," says Swing.
|
|
