Helter skelter, in a summer swelter

[venta]

Yesterday, an email arrived to a mailing list I'm on, saying the following:

Today, I had the pleasure of introducing a German colleague to his first ever pie :).

I read that a couple of times, and was very confused. Subsequent emails clarified:

1. You don't really get pies in Germany. Certainly not savoury pies.
2. Said German colleague has been living in the UK a few years, and has regarded pies as suspicious, peculiar, scary British things to be avoided.
3. You really don't really get pies in Germany.

Yes, yes, I know that things like steak-and-kidney pie are regarded as Proper British Food, but I hadn't realised the extent to which the rest of the world doesn't really do pie. The Wikipedia page for pie describes meat pies as "popular in the UK, Australia and New Zealand".

Now. Really. In this age of multiculturalism, where the hell is the rest of the world? Why haven't they caught on? Admittedly, subsequent pages (eg for the Scotch pie) mention popularity in Canada, and they have that pot pie thing going on in America, but even so...

Where is the rest of Europe in the pie stakes? Never mind your galettes and your tartes, savoury pie is something they really should know about. More to the point, why aren't we going out there and setting up pie stalls for their education? They keep sending us their peculiar comestibles in fancy markets, we should reciprocate. "Getting an English" on the way home from the Bierkeller could be the new fashionable thing in Bavaria by summer.

Incidentally, the occasional European market in the Broadway, in Ealing, has a stall whose sign reads:

German Bratwurst

After Party

There are many readings of that which are just Not Right.

Comments

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Indeed; when I worked in Nice, my French colleagues were suspicious of pies, whereas I missed them mightily.

[venta.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic icon. Why do I mess about putting little pastry leaves on the top of pies when I could be putting symbols like that on them?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Heh, I made a pie with exactly that on top once, when living at Byzantium I think. We should have invited you round!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

(Then there was another one with "Jesu" lettered on the top.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... is that a joke I've missed?

You should always invite me round when eating pie, regardless of the way in which it is decorated ?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

It's a requiem-based pun, but I admit that is a bit obscure.

Please do consider it a standing invitation, in that case. I have no current pie-making plans, but I am going to experiment with some veggie equiv of sausage rolls; see if I can pull something tasty together.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It's a requiem-based pun

*groan*

I was thinking on totally the wrong lines :)

I wonder if finely chopped mushrooms, onions, breadcrumbs, and cheese mixed together could be persuaded to pretend to be the inside of sausage rolls?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's almost exactly how I was thinking, although I had grated courgette rather than mushrooms. The trick is going to be getting the texture right so that it doesn't dry out while baking and fall apart as soon as you bite in. I'm hoping cheddar will help with the binding job.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

If Cheddar turns out not to work, grated Edam might...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The cheese that is made backwards! Mm, it has the right sort of rubberiness, although I don't think much of the flavour.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I agree if you mean the cheese, but the resulting rolls will more likely taste of mushroom.