It's always sad to leave a place when you've had a good time there, and Edinburgh was no exception, so imagine my delight when we discovered, hidden away in the most remote corner of the airport, a surfers van dispensing the most cornish of everything that ever came out of Cornwall - pasties! For the uninitiated, a pasty is a circle of pastry (butterdeig) filled with beef pieces, chopped onion, potato and turnip (kålrot) - the american name for this root vegetable is something like Budweiser - this is then seasoned with salt and pepper, folded together and sealed, then baked in the oven. The result is a crust filled with a tasty stew (lapskaus). The pasty was a portable meal that the cornish tin-miner could take down the mine in his pocket. Most people who have ever eaten a pasty are delighted to have a chance of another one, but to a cornish girl, visiting the absolute opposite end of the British Isles, it was nothing short of a miracle.
It's always sad to leave a place when you've had a good time there, and Edinburgh was no exception, so imagine my delight when we discovered, hidden away in the most remote corner of the airport, a surfers van dispensing the most cornish of everything that ever came out of Cornwall - pasties! For the uninitiated, a pasty is a circle of pastry (butterdeig) filled with beef pieces, chopped onion, potato and turnip (kålrot) - the american name for this root vegetable is something like Budweiser - this is then seasoned with salt and pepper, folded together and sealed, then baked in the oven. The result is a crust filled with a tasty stew (lapskaus). The pasty was a portable meal that the cornish tin-miner could take down the mine in his pocket. Most people who have ever eaten a pasty are delighted to have a chance of another one, but to a cornish girl, visiting the absolute opposite end of the British Isles, it was nothing short of a miracle.
I have pasty envy! I have to make my own, and they're never quite right. Perhaps one day I will perfect the magical art of flaky pastry.
ReplyDeleteOh, and a turnip is a turnip here, but a swede is a rutabaga :)
Also, I heart the pirates on the bag.
ReplyDeleteI have pasty envy too! Is it true that the thick crusty part was so they could hold on to it without getting the rest of their lunch all tinny (for lack of better word)? Love little happy miracles.
ReplyDeleteHi Chandler!
ReplyDeleteI don't think they worried too much about hygiene back then. The crust was supposed to be so sturdy that the housewife could drop her husband's dinner down the mineshaft without it breaking. I prefer my pastry just thick enough to hold the inside in. Now my mouth's watering!
Another interesting pasty fact is that it's also called a tattie oggie, hence the chant that the Cornish rugby team have - "Oggie, oggie, oggie, oi, oi .oi!" I heard the boyscouts in Løten shouting it on national day - bet they didn't know what they're shouting about!