pouët.net

fair enough- though it is a bit depressing that noone (except topy) said anything about it during the party, when we still had a chance to do something (albeit not much) about it.

i personally had dinner from amon (the pizza and döner place) four nights in a row, and felt it was fine. this was confirmed by the handful of people i asked for their opinion during the party.

i assume you only ordered it the first evening then?

also, realistically, you cannot expect cuisine from a ~8euro meal. not in holland, anyway. for that price, junkfood is the best you can realistically expect.

that's easily solved by using plastic dishes... but you are overlooking
-lots of work in preparation
-loads of people don't like spaghetti, esp not 4 days in a row
-cooking for 50-60 ppl is a special skill, even with simple dishes
-experiments tend to fail in case of lacking experience. failure is not an option if we want to preserve atmosphere.

so although i am not against the idea by definition, i am not going to risk it unless we manage to get an experienced (read: qualified) high volume cook on our team.

the kitchen does lend for bigscale cooking so mayhaps cooking two main courses might not be a bad idea next time. but yeh, the dishes...

although cooking for a lot of people requires good skill too :P

havoc: fruit at the brunch sessions were great - maybe stick the bread in the oven next time though :) In general I can't complain about the food situation, and contrary to others (i guess), I didn't mind the junkfood.

I think the trick is to order something you know they can handle - but then I guess maybe they were a little overwhelmed by the volume as well

If it's of any help, I personally found the foodservice at the party to be excellent. The pizzas I ordered and ate personally each evening were decent enough too - however, I think people have to realise that when you get semi-mass catering like we have, standards are not going to be as high as say,a meal for a couple (say 2 people).

Having fruit available at the brunch sessions was a real winner though - and nice to see everyone sharing in that too. I also support Havoc's idea about having non-fizzy fruit juice available at the bar for next year. This is perfect for those times if you wake up overnight with a dry mouth but do not want coke or lemonade at that time.

Yes, I'll agree with the earlier comments about the bread being slightly frozen - but that wasn't a big deal. The positive vibes experienced cancelled out even the slight negatives of that ;)

It does take some skill at cooking for a lot of people as an alternative to pizzas and fast food - and it depends on timing as well. My suggestion would be some type of pasta mix - pasta itself is quite cheap when bought in bulk but it is up to the organisers at the end of it :) Certainly the kitchen looked like it could take meals being cooked in large pots.

Overall, my impression of the available food and ordering service was very high - I've had much much worse food & service at the old air force base I used to work at some years ago now, so that is saying something !

Cheers,

Felice

I had the ordered food all three days and it's p. much the standard for 'grillroom delivery' food. The shawarma dish I had wasn't super great, but it wasn't terrible either. This might have been international misunderstanding, but fair enough about the first night, they got their first big order and stuff kinda messed up.

We'll look into alternatives, but it's not easy to supply great amounts of food for a whole party.

Food fight!! =D

srsly, the pizzas weren't the best ever. dinner at the pizza place itself was better. they clearly ran into some capacity problems.

but who the fuck cares. part of the demo party charm is devolving into a caveman with your scene friends.

about the organising: i really enjoyed the thankyou's afterwards :) see you all again next year you non-fanta drinking peasants ;)

Bring back the New York Pizza! It's damn tasty!

This.

The place had been investigated (i.e. sampled) by organizers prior to ordering and the food there was pretty decent. As this is a restaurant that typically caters to the neighbourhood of Eersel it's very plausible that they couldn't handle the bulk load. Problem is, Eersel is so remote that people like NYP won't bother showing up there, and there's not much else to do in Eersel.

A plausible solution would be to order the food in smaller separate waves. A lot of the meat was fit for shoefitting mainly because they left the stuff out to dry.

As for cooking ourselves, well... Gimbap is a fun food to make and I am learning to cook Indian curry in bulk, which would be excellent for Outline.

We're catching up with the Breakpoint 09 thread. Keep on sharing!

Oh and, since it's got burried, make sure you catch all of the Outline videos if you weren't able to attend and appreciate the atmo.

Outline 2009 - Outside Exposed

...and all the live captures of the demos:

Which include a wonderful ambiance! hehe.

Some people seems to be compairing the service a bit with another party 1 month earlier. With parties this size, i don't believe the organizers are obligated to arrange ANYTHING for the visitors.

So if you don't like the junk the first night, why order the 2nd and 3rd time?

.. But the stuff about cooking yourself, don't even fuckin think about it, it will end up as a big mess and people being pissed some way or another. The service you had was, in my book, extraordinary, way more than I expect for any other party than Breakpoint to have.

.. So another thumb in your direction for doing it, and 2 more for not shouting in the faces of complaining wankers (the ones who complain more than they are allowed too)

Shifter: I could totally dig an indian meal next time :) But either way, you guys were great! All the little touches were awesome - ice cream in the afternoon, nuggets in the evening, cheap beer, cheap snacks, nice atmosphere, great location, BEDS!, showers... couldn't have wished for anything more.

Sheesh, dwarf. Now you see why people are afraid to actually give constructive criticism in the first place, with reprisals like that from you. We aren't wankers for doing what has been requested of us. Honestly :)

You have to remember that many of us come from cultures which do not easily complain. The Dutch are, according to the very famous book - The Undutchables - very good at fronting their complaints and getting what they want. Not so for many of us outsiders :)

This being our first Outline it was excellent to the max, and as I already said (and maybe not on behalf of everyone else with qualms about the food) the faults lay not with the organizers but with the way the eatery handled the massive order > on the first night < (I didn't order again the next night).

Constructively, we could potentially have had several options announced:

- If your food was cold, there WAS a microwave available. We didn't know this and would have used it without having to be put in the uncomfortable position of going up to already busy organizers and bothering them. Next time, make this a public facility.

- Instead of one massive order, make several broken up an hour between - it'll give the eatery time to prepare and also ensure that deliveries arrive with all of the food in a reasonably warm state instead of the unlucky few like us who had pizzas which were really rubbery cold, and dishes of fries and shoarma which absolutely sodden and cold.

I know that it wasn't just me and my wife who where disappointed with their order - plus another couple who had a discussion last night together with havoc on IRC.

Plus, the orgas should not be taking this personally! And neither should anyone be throwing shit in our faces just because we now have the opportunity to speak up and raise constructive criticism for next year. I'll say it again, Outline was superbly organized and it being our first time we now know the ropes as well for next year.

Cheers!

As said before, the party kicked ass, in so many ways. Everything was perfect for me, but the food. That was a 3rd party service, nothing to do with the organisers. I was more than grateful for the weekend I had there and the excellent hosting. I can't wait to go back! Complaining about the poor food I purchased is well within my rights. I'm not being an asshole in the slightest about it.

I'll repeat myself for what feels like the 20th (and last) time; The food I had (pizza) both nights was terrible. Large order, small shop, cock-up on the first night. I naturally thought the order was a bigger task than they had imagined and reordered the same meal the second night thinking that the meal would be of better quality. It was, slightly. There was at least a little more cheese and it was warmer. Although I still feel like I didn't get my money's worth. Of course, food and prices vary country to country, so some would find it good value for the money and others not. It's impossible to please everyone either way. :)

I'm not really sure what to make of this -are you implying I suck at cooking? Because them's fighting words :)

But yes, I was suggesting to cook a curry for up to 122 attendees. Sue me, you danish monkey of sorts!

Anyway, one little gripe I had was that people who were given permission to use the kitchen facilities occasionally fell short on the promise to clean up after themselves.

Granted, a few more plates and pans on the gigantic pile of dirty kitchenware that we had to process every day was no serious issue (no dishwasher at the location), but it would been nice if it didn't happen in the future, hhmkay? ;)

That is WICKED!

I live the little jig that Arcane pulled off. At the location I could only describe it as "a mating dance of the demoscene", and it looks better every time I watch it :)

Arcane dances like a Peanuts character!

Shifter: Curry? Now, if you need help cooking that give me a shout and I'll pitch in! Also, how is your missus's foot after stepping on those caterpillars?

Geez, I DID dance to 303F - music truly worthy of dancing to - but when they played almost everyone were like frozen for some reason. Besides, I actually wanted to _watch_ the compo (even though this particular entry was a ripoff) but a bunch of morons got in the way of the projector ;). Just beautiful.

BESIDES... When I DO something spotaneaous like yell or break shit or throw shit at people or dance on the table or otherwise behave like a total douche then people are all up in arms. Now you have the nerve to hassle me when I actually DO behave ;D? (not that I managed to keep that up the entire evening ;)). Sheesh... The nerve of some people :).




Oh, and regarding the food... Thec, Illm and I went into town to eat every evening (except the first one). Quite good eating actually. Definitely beats fast food. "Eddy's" has a nice schnizel and a wonderfully unhealthy "Hamburger Hawaii" ;).

as a matter of fact, there was no oven available at the facility (except a microwave). so looks like i'll be eating bake off buns the next 2-3 weeks or so ;)

even though i probably would have worded it somewhat differently ;) about 15 years experience in organising camps, parties and so on and so forth made me realize you might have a valid point there.

having thought about this claim a bit longer now, i'd have to say i think it's not based on facts. part of my daily job is managing warranty claims, statistics show that we do not get a significantly different number of claims from the various northeuropean areas. we do get a relatively higher number of claims from southern countries, which seems to be caused mostly by companies erroneously sending overstock in to the warranty department instead of returns.

just occured to me... isn't your wife dutch (and thus supposed to be more than able to complain)? :P

as we also discussed a bit yesterday, yes and no- we had nothing to do with the actual cooking in their restaurant, but we were the intermediates between our visitors and the restaurant. the guys from amon literally asked me if we had any comments or complaints about the food each and every time i visited them to make a new order. at those points, i had nothing to tell them except the single complaint i received from topy (who incidentally happens to be german, btw, meaning, none of the dutch voiced any complaints).

it is indeed, but by not voicing your comments until the party was over you gave the foodservice no opportunity to improve on themselves. so next time, just let us know asap, so we can at least try to fix whatever went wrong.

shifter, i appreciate your offer, but i will be honest and admit that i see some major risks as well. let's discuss this over a beer (or two or three) before we announce it further in public areas. :)

Sure, this isn't quite in the context I had meant it though. These people are hardly going face to face with someone to complain, like a person bringing bad meat back to a butcher, are they? What I said is indeed a truth, especially when it comes to the culture of complaining - As an Englishman I can tell you that the Dutch have their reputation as efficient and penny-saving for a reason. There is no myth there, although I admin the compensation-culture and complaining-culture is now actually spreading into cultures which otherwise would be too polite or conservative to do anything about it.

Heck, point in case: the UK government is how it is now through people being too passive about their liberties :)

And about my wife, she generally doesn't complain if I don't, and I didn't want to complain to anyone's face at the party as I already stated before - you were all very busy already and I was not comfortable of the notion of being seen as the bad guy. Topy was brave, heh :)

Next time. If it's shit, i'll fucking shit on it, pee on it, then smother it all with garlic sauce, and then post it through your letterbox. (lol re: IRC last night)

Anyway, this is going way off topic.

Cheers again thou o/

Apparently, this is a rare capture of the Graga mating dance...

havoc: this was not an announcement :)

Graga looks like somebody I once worked with. This is most strange.