because I can't sleep

Through a series of long and convoluted internet steps, I found myself at the Making Light Mormon cuisine thread (warning: may traumatize two groups of people: those who like Jello and those who do not), and then I realized-- as far as I know, only one person who reads this regularly was raised Baha'i, and that means that none of you know about the punch.

See, the Baha'i year has nineteen months of nineteen days each (plus either four or five intercalary days to balance things out), and each month-end/beginning is a holiday, wherein the local Baha'i community gets together to pray, do administrative stuff, and eat. The formal title of the event is in fact a Nineteen-Day Feast. Generally it goes one of two routes, pizza or potluck. (The group I grew up with alternated.) Other Baha'i occasions-- major holidays, weddings, retreats, the occasional guest speaker-- also require potlucks (and if you're lucky, the Iranian contingent brings the rice).

At all Baha'i potlucks at which anyone is making an effort, anywhere, you will be served the same punch. I mean it. Anywhere. I have had this punch at two separate religious camps, one of them a wilderness camp where it took a serious effort to truck in; I have had it at multiple weddings; I have had it throughout the lower forty-eight; I have confirmed sightings by people I trust of local-ingredient equivalents in both Mexico and eastern Europe.

What confuses me is that it is such a totally, absolutely Midwestern recipe, and yet I haven't had it at any non-Baha'i function, and it's so universal there.

So. Does anyone know about this? Has anyone encountered it anywhere else, in a non-Baha'i context?

( Red Punch )

because I can't sleep

Through a series of long and convoluted internet steps, I found myself at the Making Light Mormon cuisine thread (warning: may traumatize two groups of people: those who like Jello and those who do not), and then I realized-- as far as I know, only one person who reads this regularly was raised Baha'i, and that means that none of you know about the punch.

See, the Baha'i year has nineteen months of nineteen days each (plus either four or five intercalary days to balance things out), and each month-end/beginning is a holiday, wherein the local Baha'i community gets together to pray, do administrative stuff, and eat. The formal title of the event is in fact a Nineteen-Day Feast. Generally it goes one of two routes, pizza or potluck. (The group I grew up with alternated.) Other Baha'i occasions-- major holidays, weddings, retreats, the occasional guest speaker-- also require potlucks (and if you're lucky, the Iranian contingent brings the rice).

At all Baha'i potlucks at which anyone is making an effort, anywhere, you will be served the same punch. I mean it. Anywhere. I have had this punch at two separate religious camps, one of them a wilderness camp where it took a serious effort to truck in; I have had it at multiple weddings; I have had it throughout the lower forty-eight; I have confirmed sightings by people I trust of local-ingredient equivalents in both Mexico and eastern Europe.

What confuses me is that it is such a totally, absolutely Midwestern recipe, and yet I haven't had it at any non-Baha'i function, and it's so universal there.

So. Does anyone know about this? Has anyone encountered it anywhere else, in a non-Baha'i context?

( Red Punch )