[Viennaberry]

Probably the potato.
It is incredibly adaptable and suits any plate of any class.

From chips, crisps, waffles, wedges, grits, and fries to au gratin, dauphinoise & duchess potatoes.

[Riku]

I'd go with potato too for surpassing any sort of perceived class boundary having some potatoes could mean deep-fried chips and curry from the Hotspot, fries with your Big Mac, crispy wedges at the pub, to perfectly formed roast potatoes with the tender cut of roast beef in the Great Hall. And even better, Dauphinoise or a packet of McCoys taste just as good as each other

[TotoMimo]

I understand the (well made) points for potato, but it's more a component of a dinner than... A dinner... Even when the "main event" IE stovies or jacket tattie... No?

[MelissaJayne]

My thoughts exactly, which is why I didn't originally say potato. If I were to do individual ingredients, you could say something like beef just as easy as potato. Cheap beef cuts, cheap beef ready meals, to the finest beef steaks.

[TotoMimo]

Of course, that seeps into the debate of what you regard as a "meal", but I still discount the basic "potato" suggestion.

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

Pasta is most definetly a meal! You can have it plain on it's own with a wee bit of butter and salt, or you can layer things ontop of it.

I'm still sticking with pasta as the universal social tier main.

[TotoMimo]

Hm. I'm definitely seeing the Roast Dinner more as a "come richer or poorer" dish than pasta; I mean, fair enough you can slam some lobster or something in there, shave on some truffles or something, but pasta doesn't scream "posh" to me.

[MelissaJayne]

Think of it this way, if you went to a dinner party and the main was a dish of a quality roasted meat, goose fat spuds, homemade yorkshire puddings, al dente quality organic vegetables, homemade gravy..you'd be like, in awe of the chef. If it was a pasta dish, even if the pasta was homemade, you'd be like..this is good but, pasta, at a dinner party? Can't imagine gents in tuxedos or dickie bows digging into bowls of pasta.

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

You do all make some good points, (but strangely, I can see gents digging into pasta at a dinner party) though I think this could be a case of preference of pasta over a roast for me. I guess I'll have to bow down and admit defeat.

Looks like this is going to be another 'afternoon tea vs roast dinner' debate again. Curses to my opinions in the minority.

[MelissaJayne]

(Original post by helen-a-ravenclaw)
You do all make some good points, (but strangely, I can see gents digging into pasta at a dinner party) though I think this could be a case of preference of pasta over a roast for me. I guess I'll have to bow down and admit defeat.

Looks like this is going to be another 'afternoon tea vs roast dinner' debate again. Curses to my opinions in the minority.

That's just the way it pasta, I mean has ta, be.

*gets coat, leaves*

[TotoMimo]

Hm, I'm going to actually leave this debate for a while longer to see if anyone else can contribute, otherwise we'll be at a stalemate, you two.

Also, Melissa, I hang my head. I hang my head. Sometimes, your jokes make baby jesus cry.

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

I did admit defeat though Toto!

Maybe one day I'll win one of these debates...one day...

[lukas1051]

In the face of my undying love for pasta and my undying hate for roast dinner, I'm still going to have to vote for the roast. Pasta is versatile and eaten by all people regardless of social class, be it a cheap-as-chips spaghetti bolognese, or some fancy white wine linguine with scallops and lobster and white truffle. However the way it is served is not universal in my opinion, I cannot imagine a working class family tucking into some watery seafood pasta soup, nor can I imagine a posh family sharing a Iceland Chicken Tikka Lasagne. While pasta is universally eaten, I see it more as a component and not a meal. The roast dinner on the other hand is eaten by people of all classes, regardless of its quality or the price of the ingredients, it's still basically the same dish, which I why I'll vote for the humble roast dinner.

[TotoMimo]

VERDICT: THOUGH TSR HAD A FEW DEVIATIONS ON WHAT SHOULD BE DETERMINED TO BE THE SOCIAL STATUS-QUASHING MEAL, IT WAS DECIDED UPON AS THE ROAST DINNER. "MEAT AND TWO VEG" THEME HAS CARRIED THROUGH FROM PAUPER TO PRINCE IN MANY CULTURES, BUT NONE MORE SO PREVALENT THAN IN OUR OWN. WITH FLEXIBILITY OF SPECIES OF ANIMAL FOR THE MEAT AND CUT OF SAID BEAST, AND WITH VEGETABLES, PUDDINGS, DUMPLINGS AND GRAVIES DEVIATING IN PRICE AND QUALITY, THERE IS NO POCKET TOO SHALLOW OR TOO DEEP FOR THE SHEER SPECTRUM OF POSSIBILITIES FOR THE ROAST DINNER.

Philip Pirrip Pip, Sultan of Brunei, time for your dinner, the Roast's on!

[TotoMimo]

WEDNESDAY 8TH AUGUST

TODAYS DEBATE: Around the entire world, the soft drink that sells the most per unit, volume, and price, is Coca Cola in the original, iconic red-banded form (with the Diet variant not far off it). In fact, between the recorded period of 1990 to 2001, the only country to consistently NOT have Coca Cola as the most-sold soft drink by the aforementioned criteria is Scotland; with Barr's Irn Bru topping this charts. Now you all know my blind loyalty to my country is something I am pretty overt about; but a Coca Cola spokesperson famously mentioned back in the mid nineties that the sole reason Scotland embraced Irn Bru more than Coca Cola was "patriotic defiance and xenophobia" as opposed to genuinely preferring the orange elixir.

How true do you believe this statement is, if at all? Do you believe Scotland just hates outside products that much, that it just adores it's own culture too much to NOT buy Irn Bru over the leading brand elsewhere, or that we genuinely just... love Irn Bru?

[MelissaJayne]

Hahaha, what an awesome bit of food/drink knowledge right there. I'm half and half on this one, I wouldn't call Scots racist for drinking more Irn Bru, however, I would bet that a large amount of Scottish people DO buy it because well, IT'S SCOTTISH, IT'S THE DONE THING TO DO PAL! But, if it's always been popular in Scotland, they may have been bought up on it and as a result, grown up buying it. You buy what you like and what you're used to. In fairness, Irn Bru is REALLY nice - I think if other countries knew of it a bit more, and gave it a go, maybe it'd give Coca Cola a run for its money. The Scots are though, in fairness, the most patriotic people in the world, so there is probably some just reasons to the arguement.

[TotoMimo]

Haha; when I heard the sniping "Scotland is just xenophobic" comment I was instantly offended... Then said "probably right though."

[TotoMimo]

So are there no further additions? Is this an open-shut non-debate, today?

[helen-a-ravenclaw]

Well I've never had Irun Bru and don't know much about the Scottish culture so I don't feel like I can make any comment on it really...

It just is that way because...it is?

[Nooshkabob]

I have little experience with the scottish, nor with irun bru so i also find it hard to give an opinion...