Funeral home's move to sell liquor, catering packages part of a trend

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/a ... story.html

Dave148 wrote:

Funeral home's move to sell liquor, catering packages part of a trend

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/a ... story.html

In my original post circa 2007:

A friend buried her Mother at Cedar Memorial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cemetery was one-stop shopping for all the supplies and services for a funeral: florist, caskets, plot, clothing, chapels and family center with catering for the post committal meal. You had the option of using their caterer or bringing in your own food. My friend brought sandwiches, drinks and cookies for the viewing. For the post committal reception in mid-afternoon she used their caterer for serving desserts and coffee. For my friend and her children it was the first time they had attended a funeral where viewing, services, committal and closing reception were confined to the cemetery.

Secrets of the world's oldest funeral feast

About 12,000 years ago, a great feast was held in honour of a mysterious woman. The group filled her grave with strange objects. Then, bizarrely, they threw the remains of their meal into the grave.

The remains of the feast were discovered in Hilazon Tachtit cave in Israel...

New York State Makes It Legal to Cry in Your Funeral Pie

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/nyreg ... -ipad&_r=0

Dave148 wrote:

New York State Makes It Legal to Cry in Your Funeral Pie

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/nyreg ... -ipad&_r=0

Until just recently, food could not be served at funeral homes in New York. This is not an issue in Illinois or at least I know of no prohibitions.

One of the better food served in a funeral home was kenji's funeral last year. Smokers outside preparing brisket served in bahn mi sandwiches. Peach cobbler from Smoque.

I have brought homemade baked cakes to my grandparents funerals. Relatives we rarely see hightailed it to the kitchen when they knew my Oma's apple cake was at her husband's funeral.

I never saw people eating in the room where the deceased was reposed. At kenji's funeral there was a large separate room intended for food service. At my grandparents funerals, there was a small room downstairs for food service.

We asked Avli to cater a lunch after my mother's memorial Mass. They did a wonderful and thoughtful job and delivered the food to the church. They were very accommodating and the food was excellent.

I'm 60 years old, been to more funerals than I can count, and have never been to a restaurant for a funeral meal. In my circles, after the burial, everyone goes back to the church where the service was, for a meal and time of visiting and remembering. The church always has a committee responsible for preparing the meal, and the church pays, or sometimes people also are assigned to bring in dishes such as a dessert or salad.

And a funeral isn't complete without funeral potatoes, although I have been to some meals with the favorite foods of the deceased. We consider it an honor and privilege to help with the food at times like these. Kind of one last thing you can do for them.

npchicago wrote:I'm 60 years old, been to more funerals than I can count, and have never been to a restaurant for a funeral meal. In my circles, after the burial, everyone goes back to the church where the service was, for a meal and time of visiting and remembering. The church always has a committee responsible for preparing the meal, and the church pays, or sometimes people also are assigned to bring in dishes such as a dessert or salad.

And a funeral isn't complete without funeral potatoes, although I have been to some meals with the favorite foods of the deceased. We consider it an honor and privilege to help with the food at times like these. Kind of one last thing you can do for them.

Ms. Ingie is responsible for the funeral meals at her church. She is very organized with lots of volunteers willing to bring food.

All my grandparents funerals had meals in restaurants afterwards. When an uncle died, his post service meal was in a monastery. It had a pleasantly austere feel with bare wood tables.

I have probably said may be a bit too often. I learned when 'funeral' is attached to a recipe, it connotes it feeds a lot of people rather than what I expected: just for funerals.

My Dad has advised he would like a meal in the church meeting hall. Well, I guess so, maybe, but I guess it depends on how I feel. I have the feeling the underlying wish is I am making this meal. Of course, he believes he will live to 600 and this may never, ever be my problem.

I am still so glad I attended Kenji's wake with a smoker in the funeral home parking lot. Delicious Bahn Mi sandwiches filled with BBQ brisket from his smoker. It was quite inspiring. So much of his personality was present, and I had never met him before in the flesh.

For years, I have been thinking of doing a program on funeral food.

Regards,
Cathy2

Being from a small area in the UP, they typically always have a luncheon at the Church Hall afterwards. My Mother passed this summer and the church ladies put together a big potluck style luncheon that was great. This is very typical. You can judge the age of the deceased by checking if the have lime jello with shredded carrots in it. An old staple that we still chuckle at.

The Food Chain – Raw Grief and Widowed
Airs on: BBC World Service

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswpmz

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswpn0

The serendipitous proximity of EJ's on Skokie Boulevard to its funeral home neighbor practically begs for a quick post-visitation detour to enjoy their spectacular grilled calamari and hoist one for my homies.

Seeing that I went through this virtually yesterday...I think I can add some perspective.

Maybe it's partially because we're Italian, but even before my parents passed, a major component of the funeral plans was 'where are we gonna eat afterwards?'

Full disclosure--an idea was bandied about to fete the funeral-goers at my folks' favorite geriatric dining hangout: Dover Straits in Mundelein. I said no, no, a thousand times no...because although the food is pretty good (and the earlybird specials with the salad 'boat' are decidedly a value) I knew a lot of the group would covertly judge the experience from an 'enjoyment' standpoint--believe it or not--and how they're fed is oh, so important. Ironic & kind of morbid but true.

So I nixed that and after their military burial (Dad was retired WWII Air Force and the ceremony was incredibly impressive, regardless of your view on the Armed Forces), we had a luncheon for 65 at Francesca's Tavola in Arlington Heights, actually their 'bereavement menu'.

10 out of 10? No, probably an 8 overall but the service was top notch, the quality solid but not spectacular. I seem to have seen a lot of rigatoni with vodka sauce lately, but this version was really tasty & not too thick. And I'm not a fan of family-style serving, but replacement of empty plates with full ones was frequent and unobtrusively done.

Interesting concept at Francesca's for inadvertently overstating the number of expected guests. For example, if you tell them 60 people and only 50 show, they've already cooked for 60, thus they will split the difference with you, charging for 55 people, but payer gets to bring all the extra wine and food home. I think that's fair.

Francesca's in the end was high strata chain restaurant fare, which is not always a bad thing under these circumstances. It served our purpose and was reasonable at about $40 per person including alcohol and tip.

Oh, BTW, at the funeral home they provided coffee, and some of the people in the funeral party brought coffeecakes and donuts for beforehand.

jnm123 wrote: (Dad was retired WWII Air Force and the ceremony was incredibly impressive, regardless of your view on the Armed Forces)

My view, I'm happy there are folks such as you dad and I thank him for his service. Condolences on your loss.

jnm123 wrote:Interesting concept at Francesca's for inadvertently overstating the number of expected guests. For example, if you tell them 60 people and only 50 show, they've already cooked for 60, thus they will split the difference with you, charging for 55 people, but payer gets to bring all the extra wine and food home. I think that's fair.

Hi,

My Dad has a widowed friend who was very disappointed by the no-shows at her husband's post funeral luncheon. He's been dead for five years and it still eats her up.

Prior to her experience, my Dad sometimes went to the post funeral luncheon and sometimes not. Now he goes every time, because he learned this is meaningful to the family.

***

Jay - I'm very sorry about the loss of your parents.

Regards,
Cathy2

Eat Your Sorrow With These Victorian Funeral Biscuits.
Ingredients often included molasses, caraway seeds, ginger, and grief.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/f ... ilto_share

Congregation Votes to Continue Serving Raisin Buns at Funerals

Tempers flared at the Mennonite church last night, after rogue elder Gunther W. Thiessen put forward a motion to replace the traditional funeral raisin buns with store-bought dinner rolls.

“Some of us don’t like raisins,” said Thiessen. “Personally, I find them to be more than a nuisance. I’d like to spend the open mic time listening to stories of Mr. Rempel’s five months in the Conscientious Objector camp, but instead I’m too distracted picking out all the raisins from my buns.”

Others in the congregation felt that, despite it’s rather unpalatable texture and taste, the raisin bun was an essential component of the grieving process.

“People expect the raisin buns,” said Mrs. Annie Reimer. “It would upset a lot of funeral-goers if they weren’t there and all of the sudden there was a basket of Pillsbury crescent rolls or something. It would be very shocking.”

After a heated debate among the elders, it was decided that the motion would be put to the congregation, who voted overwhelmingly to retain the raisin bun tradition, despite the fact that most members admitted they found the buns repulsive.

“It’s part of being a Mennonite to passively accept things that are unpleasant,” said Mrs. Reimer, “and raisin buns are just one of them.”

I want this recipe!

Feeling a little Onion juice in the air, I found that the above excerpt was from
THE DAILY BONNET -
YOUR TRUSTED SOURCE FOR MENNONITE SATIRE

Other headlines:

Mennonite Pastor Suspends Presidential Campaign after Terrible Display in Quilt Auction

Thrift Store Prices Still Not Cheap Enough for Mennonite Thieves

Mennonite Church Approves ‘Scandalous’ New Hemline

More than thirty parishioners fainted at the Harder-Dyck wedding in Swift Current this past Sunday after the bride sported a wedding dress with an ‘outrageous’ hemline just above the ankles.

“The elders recently raised the allowable hemlines and I took full advantage of the new guidelines,” said Mrs. Harder (nee Dyck). “They even allowed my bridesmaids a full six inches above the ankle!”

and so forth. I don't know much about Mennonite culture, but enough to get most of the jokes.

Giovanna

Yea, someone advised the same via direct message.

I guess when something seems impossible to believe, it is indeed impossible.

Enjoy the humor!

My inner 13-year-old is way too amused at the names of the nuptial pair.

Giovana

Cathy2 wrote:Congregation Votes to Continue Serving Raisin Buns at Funerals

I want this recipe!

The article may be fake, but Mennonite raisin buns are real. Have a look at the raisin bun recipe on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website. The recipe calls for mashed potatoes and sounds pretty good. These buns are essentially Dutch krentenbollen. The Mennonite movement was founded by Menno Simons, a Frisian priest (Frisia/Friesland is now part of the Netherlands).

Rene G wrote:These buns are essentially Dutch krentenbollen. The Mennonite movement was founded by Menno Simons, a Frisian priest (Frisia/Friesland is now part of the Netherlands).

I'd forgotten I posted a picture of a krentenbolle here, part of a post on Pella, Iowa.

Rene G wrote:I tried a few things at Vander Ploeg Bakery (over a century old) but one that stands out is this barely-sweet raisin bun (krentenbollen).

Since the site's quote function no longer seems to allow including images, I guess I have to add it separately.


History of Vander Ploeg Bakery: https://www.pellabakery.com/about

I'm very fond of these things and would happily endure a long funeral sermon if I knew it would be followed by krentenbollen.

In Thailand, Funeral Cookbooks Preserve Recipes and Memories

...
Most Thais consider funeral books a way to safeguard good memories of a loved one. Distributed by family members as mourners file into the temple to say their farewells, funeral books are typically put together by grieving children or partners. Often, they document the life of the deceased, share family anecdotes and photos, and reprint important Buddhist sermons.
...