potlucky

This Sunday our church is having a potluck. I don't really have strong opinions about whether they are good or bad. There are good things about them and bad things. I know that they make for easy inside jokes in churches that have a lot of potlucks, so that's something. The thing that I like least about them, though, is how difficult it is to tell what exactly it is that is in specific pots.

Almost any time I attend a potluck I cannot identify between a quarter and a third of the dishes in the lineup. This stems from the fact that almost everything is a casserole or some other dish whose ingredients are difficult to identify. I think my colorblindness may play a part too. My guess is that most people identify questionable dishes by their color, but the common casserole colors (yellow, orange, tan, green, light brown) look very similar to me. As a result I almost always have at least one thing on my plate that I cannot identify until I have tasted it.

Very frequently at a potluck someone brings a KFC bucket, and while it sticks out, it is always one of the first things to go. As much as I like KFC, I think the main reason that it goes quickly is because people know what it is, rather than that they like it more than anything else on the table. When compared with difficult-to-identify food, a piece of original recipe is safer which simply makes it the better choice.