I was at the "London Tea Room" (my favorite tea shop here in St. Louis) around lunchtime, and saw they had Cornish Pasties on offer. And after reading Sue Brown's "Changes" stories and Shiraz's "Unaccounted Gains", I had to see what all the fuss was about, so I gave it a try.
It was pretty good, kind of shepherd's-pie-ish, though honestly not amazing (though it might have just been a poor imitation of the real thing). The ones they had were a bit small to make a full meal out of (and no chips available, either), but at ~$8 each I wasn't about to have two. Regretfully, I was thus forced to have a bit of cake after to round out the meal. ^_~
Anyway, I suppose I'll now have to try a "real" one for comparison, if I ever find myself in southern England...
Comments
pastie
Its actually any form of veggie/meat combo in a pastry.
They are quite popular all over the commonwealth.
Dayna.
SW of England
You cannot beat a real pasty the real ones made in Cornwall are about the size of a 12" dinner plate folded in half (if you see what I mean) filled with thinly sliced potato and turnip (swede in some places) with diced beef liberally scattered over finished with a sprinkling of salt and pepper!
History has it that these were for the Cornish Tin miners and were a meal in itself kept them sustained over their 12 hour working day.
There are also stories - but I don't know how true they are that one end had the savoury filling while the other end had a sweet filling but this could just be a bit of folk law.
Christina
My first pasty…
… was made by a farmer's wife in Cornwall - I sat by the grandfather clock, the floor was flagstones and the table sat 16 so this oozed authenticity. Basically it was Sunday dinner in pastry with or without dessert and built to be able to survive being thrown down a tin mine for a mid shift meal. While I ate it we listened to The Archers which is still running and Angharad's only competition (Bike is better).
Rhona McCloud
I've eaten my share of them
but prefer pies they're less dry.
Angharad
OH YUM! My grandmother, who
OH YUM! My grandmother, who was born and raised in Cornwall, use to make them, and they were just down right WONDERFUL!