Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Tavares. We had often talked about going to the Renaissance Faire in Shakopee, Minnestoa when we lived in the Midwest, but never made it. It was easier to get to one an hour away as opposed to one three-four hours away.
It was a beautiful fall day - perfect for wandering through an outdoor festival. Overall, I'd say it was everything we expected it to be. We saw a couple of shows, including a jousting match, and listened to a female madrigal group; enjoyed the costumes and some of the ribald humor.
We'd always heard that you had to get one of the turkey drumsticks sold in the food court at these fairs. So we stood in line for 30 minutes for ours - all the while drooling over the 'blooming potatoes' that we saw others carrying off - a heaping plate of deep fat fried potatoes, garnished with your choice of sour cream, cheese, or catsup. "A heart attack waiting to happen" we reminded each other and held onto our spot in the turkey drumstick line. When we finally got to the head of the line, the drumsticks had run out! The vendor had some in the steamer, but it would be another 15-20 minutes before they were reaady. At this point I seriously considered giving in to the 'blooming potato' urge, but that would have been another 30-minute wait!
Bob graciously agreed to wait for the drumsticks while I went to get a seat at the next show we wanted to see. Some time later he arrived with two turkey legs in hand, blood still oozing from them.
"These don't look done," I said.
"I know," he said, "but the vendor said they are."
We each took a bite and agreed that they most definitely were not done. Returning to the vendor, following the show, we showed the vendor the undercooked drumsticks. He offered our money back, but by this point we'd committed enough time to the effort, that we didn't want to miss out on this Renaissance novelty of chomping into a huge drumstick--juices dripping down our arms. We registered our complaint and then decided to take them home to finish cooking them.
Sunday afternoon we put them on our grill rotisserie for another hour - and ate part of them for supper. We couldn't really bring ourselves to hold them in our hands and eat them as we would have at the faire. It just didn't seem right to be sitting at our kitchen table and eating like a rather uncivilized 14th century commoner. Besides that, turkey drumsitcks contain a lot of tendons and small sword-like bones that make for treacherous eating.
The remaining portion of the drumsticks is now being simmered for Turkey and Wild Rice Soup. Hopefully this third attempt will be more to our liking. Next time I head to the Renaissance Faire I'm going with the 'blooming potato.' The turkey drumstick is highly overrated.
Which drumstick would you eat?
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