The food served was quite different in quantity, and in some respects nature, from everyday meals, which for most people were apt to start with (or, for the poor, consist of) vegetable pottages (soups or stews). For a banquet, vegetables, if any—in England, they rarely appear on feast menus—were vastly outnumbered by a parade of roasts or fish of all kinds, and more elaborate dishes. Even the pottages were usually ones considered as special treats, such as frumenty (a wheat or barley pottage) with venison, or a blancmange of chicken or fish in spiced almond milk, usually also containing rice.
