Going back in time

About a month ago, I got an email from Lee, enthusiastically announcing that a glorious place called Medieval Times was coming to the ATL. A Medieval style dinner show, it was sure to be the most popular place in town. Now, I grew up in Southern California where we've had a MT for a while, so I had been several times, but I still wanted to ensure that Lee had the chance to experience the fight for valor, the joust til the death, the burning fingers from eating with no utensils, that I was able to experience so many times as a young girl.



So, to commemorate an anniversary, I suprised him with tickets for last night. When we arrived, we were corraled into a photo op with the King, and handed a green laminated card and a green crown. We quickly bolted to the bar to get some medieval libations before the show began.

Being in the green section means that you bleed green for two hours. You are encouraged to cheer relentlessly for your green knight, and heckle and mock the knights from the other side of the arena. You are given a green flag to wave during the match. Our serf even told us that we could throw chicken at the opposing knights.

This is a food blog, so I need to concentrate on the culinary attributes of Medieval Times. The first and most important thing to note about MT is that you must eat with your fingers. Apparantly, during the real Medieval Times, there were no utensils, and honored guests picked at their chicken like vultures. At Medieval Times, you have no choice, you are required to eat as such. I washed my hands twice in the bathroom before dinner.

When you first sit down, you are greeted by your serf or wench--our serf was "Sean" and he had the middle times accent down to a tee. Sean introduced us to our napkins, where within was our "Bill of Fare"...

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To indicate our drink of choice, we were instructed to turn the handle on our mug a certain direction. Shortly thereafter, Sean circled with his crock of soup. He ladled a cup of soup in each diner's silver crock.



The problem with the soup, and the whole crock idea, was that the soup was 1000 degrees, and it heated up the metal crock along with it. It was well into the show before I was able to handle mine to drink it.

Lee posed for this action shot:



Shortly after, Sean, who was a combination bartender, server, MC, and bus boy, came by with our half-chicken and one singular spare rib along with a potato. At this point, we were being regaled with a Spanish horse doing tricks.

Here's my plate:


It was pretty strange eating with my hands. Food is hot and filled with dangerous steam pockets. This is why utensils were created.

For dessert, we finished with the Pastry of the Castle--akin to a McDonald's Apple Pie.



We cheered valiently for our green knight, but in the end he perished at the hand of the White and Black knight. He put up a good fight. Almost as good as the fight we put up against our hot vegetable soup.

All in all, Medieval Times was a perfect place to spend a Thursday night. The memories of chivalry, burnt fingers, paper crowns, and horse dancing will stay with us forever.