Reply
Tue 12 Nov, 2013 12:36 am
Someone I know bought a "5th Wheel" trailer about 35 or 4O feet long.
He intends to have some people over for dinner. It seems to me
that the confines of space at and near the dinner table limit him
to having them over 2 at a time, i.e., several dinners.
A friend avers that under similar circumstances, she has had
a lot more folks over at the same time, in about the same space.
She thinks its OK to squeeze them in together.
It seems to me that a host is responsible for the contentment, comfort
and well-being of his guests, and therefore, it is rude of him to pack
them in like a subway at rushhour.
WHATAYATHINK ??
David
@OmSigDAVID,
How many? More than 4 including hosts sounds tight, but I question his judgement more that intentional rudeness.
@roger,
roger wrote:How many? More than 4 including hosts sounds tight,
A total of about 8 invited guests.
roger wrote:but I question his judgement more that intentional rudeness.
Well, the question is whether he is being sufficiently solicitous
of the comfort of his guests or not.
@OmSigDAVID,
Eight would be extremely bad judgement unless it's summer with all cooking and guests outside. I hope there are more than one donniger available.
@roger,
I must admit that it IS well ventilated, decent A.C.
@OmSigDAVID,
You know, David. The little wooden structure out back. The one that sits over a hole? I think the Aussies call it a dunny. Any way, if the group includes both sexes, you will definately need more than one.
@OmSigDAVID,
Ah. A well ventilated donniger is a joy to use. Most are kind of stuffy.
8 people for a dinner party can be a challenge even when there's a lot of elbow room. After all, let's say the main course is chicken or turkey. Assuming everybody eats poultry, the bird's (or two birds, if it's chicken) got to be a good 12-14 pounds or so to assure that everyone is adequately fed (people don't eat 2 pounds of poultry but you've got to account for bones). A bird at the larger end of that size range will be big for a smaller-sized oven, making it difficult (although not impossible) to cook sides at the same time. For beef, figure 8 ounces of meat/person (you have to allow for some shrinkage during cooking).
The bird of course doesn't include appetizers, sides, salad, soup (if any), bread and dessert. Plus beverages. It doesn't have to be a full-blown Thanksgiving meal (is this for Thanksgiving, perchance?) to still be a large meal and a lot of work.
Hence expect, if the meal is going to be completely home-cooked, for it to take a while, possibly requiring multiple uses of the oven and stove top and maybe multiple uses of a microwave to keep everything hot.
This also does not include elbow room at the table, the question of the number of toilets and where do the people go when they aren't eating? I doubt there's a lot of room to hang around.
Hell, we have a big house and we own a dining table that can seat 10 but it's a lot of work for us to just feed 6 people. And we actually have places where folks can go to get away from the table.
Yeah, I think you're right to be a bit wary of how this'll all work out. Kudos to your friend for being generous enough to invite everyone over and attempt it, but s/he should probably rethink the plan.
@jespah,
jespah wrote:
This also does not include elbow room at the table, the question of the number of toilets. . . .
I think David can now safely add 'donniger' to his vocabulary.
@roger,
Thanx for your advice, Roger.
David
@jespah,
jespah wrote:8 people for a dinner party can be a challenge even when there's a lot of elbow room. After all, let's say the main course is chicken or turkey. Assuming everybody eats poultry, the bird's (or two birds, if it's chicken) got to be a good 12-14 pounds or so to assure that everyone is adequately fed (people don't eat 2 pounds of poultry but you've got to account for bones). A bird at the larger end of that size range will be big for a smaller-sized oven, making it difficult (although not impossible) to cook sides at the same time. For beef, figure 8 ounces of meat/person (you have to allow for some shrinkage during cooking).
The bird of course doesn't include appetizers, sides, salad, soup (if any), bread and dessert. Plus beverages. It doesn't have to be a full-blown Thanksgiving meal (is this for Thanksgiving, perchance?) to still be a large meal and a lot of work.
Hence expect, if the meal is going to be completely home-cooked, for it to take a while, possibly requiring multiple uses of the oven and stove top and maybe multiple uses of a microwave to keep everything hot.
This also does not include elbow room at the table, the question of the number of toilets and where do the people go when they aren't eating? I doubt there's a lot of room to hang around.
Hell, we have a big house and we own a dining table that can seat 10 but it's a lot of work for us to just feed 6 people. And we actually have places where folks can go to get away from the table.
Yeah, I think you're right to be a bit wary of how this'll all work out. Kudos to your friend for being generous enough to invite everyone over and attempt it, but s/he should probably rethink the plan.
Thanx for your counsel, Counsellor; I see that we have a
consensus.
I advocated one couple at a time.
Its not for Thanksgiving; its just in a spirit of social conviviality.
David
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace