It’s been nearly a year now that I have been consumed by this very important question—what is the best potluck dish ever?
Yes, I know it might seem like a trivial matter to you as our denomination has just held another Annual Council and as the United States continues its political turmoil, but I can’t help myself. The ministry of meals is an important aspect of Seventh Day Adventist culture, and it bothers me that we don't have a comprehensive guide to the most popular and best-tasting dishes within our family.
But not anymore. At the Haystack, we are committed to raising the most important questions and providing the best answers. So I propose we conduct a very scientific investigation into the foods that grace our fellowship halls and gyms. I'll need your submissions in the comments. Here's the evaluation guide I will then use to rank each submission.
Is the Dish a Regular?
The dish you nominate has to be a potluck regular. Unfortunately, this disqualifies that one time a lady at church threw it down and made her super-secret recipe for everyone to enjoy. I’m sure it was legendarily good, but it won’t qualify here. If it’s not at 3/4 of your church's potlucks, I don’t want to hear about it.
Is the Dish Tasty?
This one needs no explanation.
Is It Health Message Approved?
How many vegetables are involved in this dish, if any? I may award points to some dishes that are so health message disapproved that it becomes hilarious (Staring at you, microwavable lasagna).
Are There Leftovers of It?
A good dish gets eaten at the potluck. A great dish gets finished at the potluck. Also, this helps reduce how high a score Hawaiian Rolls get because those are often purchased in large quantities. They may be delicious and enticing, but more often than not, there are plenty of rolls that never get finished off.
Rarity
No, I am not contradicting myself. I’m simply choosing to give bonus points for dishes that are regular but rare enough that they elicit excitement in a way that seeing yet another haystack or arroz frito doesn’t.
Okay. Those are my categories for evaluation. I understand that we might get submissions from various cultures, so I’m going to take the two most popular nominations from each of our continents. If the comments section gets hot enough, I may expand it to three, but we’ll see. Your potluck dish nominations can be submitted on either the blog post comments or on social media posts.
Written By: Bryant Rodriguez