A progressive dinner or, more recently, safari supper, is a dinner party with successive courses prepared and eaten at the residences of different hosts. Usually this involves the consumption of one course at each location. Involving travel, it is a variant on a potluck dinner and is sometimes known as a round-robin.[1][2]
An alternative is to have each course at a different dining area within a single large establishment.[3][4]
Safari supper
In a safari supper, the destination of the next course is generally unknown by the participants, and they have to decipher a clue before moving on. Participants go to each house for the various courses. Often there is a regional theme for each dinner, such as Italian, German, or French. Various wines to suit the courses are often served at each location.
A challenge is keeping the food warm and ready at each location. An alternative is to have the courses at different restaurants. This style of eating has recently become popular as a charity fundraiser in rural Britain and is seen as a good way of meeting different neighbors in the community by virtue of each participant having separate guests.
Safari supper (dish)
No doubt inspired by the Safari Supper children's TV dinner released in the US by Libby's in 1970, containing fried chicken, alphabet spaghetti, meatballs and tomato sauce, corn and potatoes, chocolate pudding, and chocolate milk flavouring,[5][6] the term "safari supper" can also be used to describe a type of baked curry consisting of ground beef and rice in a spicy-sweet sauce.(Safari supper Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine)
References in literature
- The Safari Party: A Comedy (2002), a play in three acts by Tim Firth.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Society's Novelties: New Things That may be Popular This Season, The (Washington) Evening Star, (Saturday, 24 October 1891), p.12.
- ↑ Progressive Dinners in New Haven: The Idea is a Popular One, and Affording a Novel Social Feature, The New-York Tribune, (Sunday, 8 February 1909), p.17.
- ↑ de Montague, Countess Annie, "Godey’s Fashions: Ingenious Forms of Entertainment: The Progressive Dinner", Godey’s Magazine, Vol.135, No.808, (October 1897), p.438.
- ↑ The "Move Up" Dinner, The (Brunswick, Georgia) Times, (Sunday, 27 February 1898), p.2.
- ↑ There were four different dinners on offer, each with child-size portions, and each with a package that turned into a puzzle-game placemat: Sea Divers Dinner, Pirate Picnic, Gold Strike Supper, and Safari Supper.
- ↑ See remarks at p.50 of Food Company Ethics, at pp.48-50, of Nutritional Content and Advertising for Dry Breakfast Cereals: United States Senate Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session ... March 2, 1972, Serial no.92-44.