Maurice the She Mog

Maurice the She Mog, a photo by Idreamofpies on Flickr.

Welcome to the Pie Tribe household, new resident "Maurice". Boy name, Girl cat. Not known as a Pie eater and if she touches mine she may not be a resident for long !!!! 

Arrived a couple of days before Christmas and shows no sign of disappearing soon despite opportunities to do so. She has only moved 4 doors (from the swampies) so should settle well, particularly with her pyschotic mother on the prowl in the neighbourhood to be avoided at all costs, the inappropriately named bubbles.

Fairly self sufficient and unobtrusive the main problem thus far is her persistent habit of attempting to trip us over by sneaking up when you least expect it and scarring the living daylights out of us.

Pie and Bovril

Hollands Meat & Potato Image: ©GeorgioImages

Over the festive period, in the company of some exiled Cestrians (Billy, John Boy, Elrico), we went in search of Pie and Football at the Exacta Stadium. With the mighty Chester playing the giants of the north east Gateshead AFC. A bright cold day had us wrapped up warm and searching for the Pies.

Delighted to find the Pies on sale were Hollands Pies, not so delighted at the £3.00 price tag. But more than delighted when they arrived (Peppered Steak) as they were twice the size we are used to, so the price was actually very acceptable. Also some of us had the added bonus of Bovril mmmmmm. The football itself was interesting and entertaining if not quite on a par with Premiership level !!! A 1-1 result was probably a fair reflection of the game overall.

Revival Times

Trip to Goodwood revival in September was a highlight of the year again and just brilliant in so many ways !! Unlike last year the weather was not as kind but the racing and the event were up to it's very high standards. 

Exceptionally well organised with crowds limited every day, make this event is very special. The effort people go to is exceptional at times (dressing up in period costume) and even if your not too interested in the motor racing there is plenty to occupy you on site. It is ram jam packed with interest and spectacle. One of the most delicious collections of working racing motor vehicles your ever likely to see anywhere on the planet.

At one point I was standing behind a couple of antipodean gentleman who had specifically come over just too see the largest ever single race gathering of Ford GT40s strutting their stuff at full thrutch. They were gobsmacked and raving about it on the phone to friends back home!!. It was brilliant to see and hear!!

Even the car parks are interesting with a lot of visitors arriving in a variety of excellent well preserved working vehicles from many different marques.

The racing as ever was superb with some fantastically close exciting racing drieven by many well known professionals inc Tom Kristiansen, Andy Wallace, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, Mark Blundell, Jackie Oliver, Win Percy, Derek Daly, John Cleland, Henri Pescarolo, Dario Franchitti, Kenny Brack, Jean Alesi, Mr Bean ......and many others

The image of the huge Ford Galaxie 500 V8 powered monsters drifting and sliding at speed around the track, racing against all sorts (inc minis) will remain with us for a long time !!

Anchored In Worthing

Playing catch up with posts and couldn't forget a trip down to Sussex in September. Whilst roaming  a damp downtown Worthing one evening, looking for fodder we were welcomed by customers and genial host Nigel (Top Man) to our first Micropub, "The Anchored". What an excellent idea !! Micro breweries we know of, but this was new.

What an excellent time we had working our way through the roster of mainly locally sourced liquid refreshments !!! No music, no TV, no Fruit Machines no corporate designer decor just great conversation and excellent interesting beverages to imbibe. We liked it so much we made a special effort to get back a couple of nights later for another great evening of tasting and chatting.......

Crims in the Cathedral

First gig of the year saw the Pieman and Georgio stepping out to Manchester Cathedral, for some groovin with the fantastic Fun Lovin Criminals. An unusual venue for a rock style concert but excellent nonetheless.

The sound on the night was not brilliant, which may have be acoustics or first night of the tour gremlins. At first this was hardly noticed but eventually there was some downtime to sort out Hueys guitar/amp/lead issue before proceeding on without interuption. 

However during this difficulty Huey & the Crims were relaxed and cool about it all. The innate ebullient nature of Mr Morgan seemed to infest the crowd with general good humour and a determination to enjoy themselves which they duly did. With some excellent tunes, raps, playing ...... underpinned by the pistol crack drive of the drums from the big presence of Mr Frank Benbini it was easy to get sucked in to having a good time!!

 

Sweeping through funk, soul, rap, hip hop, jazzy, punk, rock you certainly don't get bored with the Fun Lovin Criminals.

Bear Hug, King of New York, Southside, All for self, Back on the Block, Loco, Up on the Hill, Swashbucklin' in Brooklyn, Scooby Snacks, Where the Bums Go,10th street, I Can't Get With That, Come Find Yourself, Classic Fantastic, Big Night Out, Will I Be Ready Encore: Bombin' the L Love Unlimited,  Live, Have, Love, The Fun Lovin' Criminal

Set aside for the journey home a Phil Salt Butchers, pork pie to eradicate the late night munchies. On this occasion a little heavy on the jelly but excellent meat/pastry combination as ever.

Dorset Days

Sally Lunnes Bakers (and Pie makers), Weymouth 

A few short days in Dorset and we have fallen in love with the place. Some good weather helped but a fair abundance of pastry filled savoury manufacturers and retailers in the vicinity inc Mortimers, Pasty Parlour, Cornish Bakehouse, The Phoenix Bakery, Williams The Bakers......

Plenty to see and do around the county. We stayed in Weymouth enjoyed spending time around the harbour/port area. It was  pretty vibrant for a small town with plenty of places to eat and drink. Obviously there is plenty of seafood to enjoy, being on the coast. Best of all we were close to Devon and Cornwall a pie making hot spot of Britain.

We like the Olde Sally Lunne Bakery not far from the Bay Esplanade. I tried the Homity Pie which was great. The others had Sausage roll and Cheese pasty which went down a treat.

Weymouth

Mr Persuader

 

Mr Persuader, a photo by Idreamofpies on Flickr.

Saturday night at Wrexham Central Station and I am persuaded that Mr Johnny Marr is brilliant. A sold out Central Station saw Mr Marr take to the stage preceded by the Persuaders Theme (Top Tune). 

A great gig, even with a slightly dodgy sound. Which may have been due to where we were standing, left of stage and close to speakers. However it didn't matter, he was great and can't recommend him highly enough. He played a lot of his latest album release, "The Messenger" with plenty enough to like about it and chucked in 5/6 Smiths tunes, an electronic song and a rousing version of the Crickets " I Fought the Law".

"How Soon Is Now" was a highlight of the night for me. Low point was when the Photo Fascists (Security) stopped me taking piccies although prior permission had been sought and given from the venue !!!!

Hollands Steak & Stilton New FAVOURITE Pie !

Hollands Pie Heaven, Albert Square Chop House

The Pie tribe enjoyed a great evening at the recent "Hollands Pies and Ale tasting" in Manchester. Hosting the evening was the The Albert Square Chop House. Compere for the evening was fascinating Mr Tom Bridges (Pie Master) who was on fine form introducing the various Pies on offer with enthusiasm and keen insightful knowledge.

A number of pies were available with a suggested ale to go with each. Of great interest were some new pies, due to go on sale we believe in 2014, in particular the Hunters Chicken pie and the Steak & Stilton, part of the new Pub classics range. Below is our reviewers morsel by morsel account of each!!!

Chicken + Gravy – part of 2 pack frozen range available from Sept 2013 in Tesco nationwide,  microwave in 3 mins. Generous portions of chicken not just stingy bits in tons of gravy. Tastes well nice

 

Hunters chicken pie – pub classics for 2014. Bacon, pepper, mushrooms, bbq sauce, cheese, chicken breast and thigh. Cheese is a good addition and makes veg and sauce taste better. Chicken got a bit lost in stronger flavours but not a bad pie.

Peppered Steak – to launch 2014, hard to do wrong and one they always do well. New addition of peppercorns to top are brilliant adds a good extra kick. Sauce remains tasty and creamy as always, nice crispy pastry.

Potato and Meat bestseller – not a new one but cracking! P+M not my favourite type of pie but still a good pie, apparently uses Wilja and Esitma taters.

Cheese and onion – again not a new one, but there because who doesn’t like cheese and onion? Remains excellent.

Steak and Stilton – part of new pub classics range to be launched in 2014.  Best pie ever!! Strong stilton flavour but not too overpowering. can still taste the steak and good gravy sauce. MY NEW FAVOURITE PIE 

This is a tremendous compliment given the number of pies we try !!!!! We have in the past enjoyed a Steak/Stilton combination in a pie from a number of artisan pie makers with success. But this is the best we've ever tasted from one of the big boys. We can't wait to get our chops on more.

Many thanks to all the staff on the night from Hollands Pies who made us feel very welcome and supplied us with such tasty Pie.

Le Pie

Looking to Vezelay, Burgundy

Big thanks to the Shed tribe who invited us to their home in Burgundy this August. We had the best of times , even though the Pie count was low, there was plethora of delicious morsels to occupy our taste buds including cheeses, bread, sausages, brioche with scratchings, iced tea peche and CAKES !!!!

The weather was very kind to us and allowed us to have long relaxing days doing whatever we liked till late in the evening. A small matter of the brakes, on the car, lost us a day but no matter as driving around sorting it out was fine, with such a beautiful backdrop and relaxing weather.

The usual activities sightseeing, exploring, canoeing (!!!!!!), wild cat feeding, eating, chatting, laughing, walking, lounging, reading, shopping, swimming, frisbee, drinking,  etc etc were indulged. But the highlight of the holiday, for the Pieman, was finding a cache of Asterix figures at a great price, at a boiling hot brocante when it was least expected.

"Between A Rock and a Hard Plaice"

Resting up before a performance, a photo by Idreamofpies on Flickr.

Last night we had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Great Escapes TV Presenter, Diver and Marine Biologist , Monty Halls. 

The evening consisted of Monty trawling through his career so far, what inspired him and how he got to do what he does now. He would then go on to speak about the individual series in some further detail emphasising the teams who produce such captivating results. He also gave attention to some of the many characters he met on the way.

His presentation is liberally sprinkled with  some fantastic images and video clips of past and  present work. He is enthusiastic , informative, provoking and captivating in equal measures. There is an interval of about twenty minutes after which a shorter half is ended by a short question and answer session.The time has flown by but he has been talking for nearly 3 hours !!!

However the star of the show is a four legged, webbed, big eared, black coated newfoundland/german shepherd heinz who is massive and has the best temperament of any hound dog I've come across. Reubens is the star.