Pies

I saw on Billy Connolly's TV progamme about the 'pie floater' and wondered if you could get something similar in England or Cornwall?

Hey Aussie, I know your a top bloke and all that but at the risk of suffering a forking from you tommorow..... In my humble Devonian opinion Pasties beat Pies hands down any day of the week. ;D

I noticed a pie and mash shop in St Marychurch a while ago. Is it still there? It's listed at www.pie-and-mash.com/shops.php alongside the one in Grays where I believe I ate on the day when the lunchtime nightmare was the game itself!

I’m afraid these if I’m out and feeling a bit peckish, I will always choose a pie over a pasty. The reason is simply there are so many rubbish pasties on sale and I so often end up taking a bite or two, before throwing them in the nearest bin.

I’m a Devon boy and grew up on teddy oggies and was never a pie man. As a kid I would always try and find a Llewellyn's pasty to buy as they were my favourite. They were made in an old bakery in buildings that were behind the old laundry on the Hele roundabout (now the site of the BP garage) and there was no better tasting pasty as far as I was concerned.

But like so many thinks they disappeared and I have never found a pasty that I enjoy eating as much as those Llewellyn's ones, there are a few bakers I have come across on my travels around the west country who’s pasties I feel are OK, but they are few and far between.

So rather than take the chance my pasty is only going to end up in the nearest bin, I go for a pie as on the whole they are going to taste reasonably OK. Yes some might have meat in them that tastes more like some sort of manufactured meat rather than real meat, but at least you get plenty of gravy in them and if the some bits of the meat seem a bit chewy, you can always rid your mouth of them.

Around here one of the pies most people seem to like are the pukka pies, not sure where they are made, but most fish and chip shops seems to go for them.

I was very surprised last year to eat a pie I really enjoyed that was made by a company I feel make the very worst pasties in living history. I very often get free food offered me, many of the companies I call on have special sales days, or Tool Manufacturers such as Dewalt, Makitia, Bosch etc, run special tool shows at their premises. At these events free food is always on offer and more often than not, its burgers, sausages, or bacon baps etc.

As I know all the reps etc who work for the major Tool Manufacturers and they are at such events, I don’t need to ask for the food as they just make sure I get some. Last year at one company I was asked what I wanted to eat and was given the choice of a meat pie along with the normal sort of food on offer.

It was a very large pie and the taste was just superb, but the fact I was starving hungry and it was a very cold day, may have played some part in it tasting so good. So when it was all gone I asked if they knew who made the pie and I was told it was a Ginsters pie.

I did ask Carol shortly after to try and buy me one in a supermarket, but she must have forgotten and so I do not know if the ones for sale in shops taste anything like the one I had to eat that day.

That's why your shirt is XXL old boy.

Gone - didn't last long.