Ever been to Cornwall? How about England, ever been there? Because if so, you just might be familiar with the important handful of goodness called a pasty. And that is like "PASS-tea", not like "pastry" minus the -r.A pasty is basically a meat pie, but it looks like this, and that tells you more than my writing can:
Look at that glistening pocket. A few months ago I read in the Washington Post about a new shop opening up called Pure Pasty Co., offering authentic Cornish pasties in Vienna (VA.) I knew I had to try them.
So a few weeks ago when my brother was visiting from Yorkshire, where he now lives with his family, it was the perfect time to try them. His is a discriminating palate, and he knows what to expect.
First of all, what an adorable shop. You can sit at the stools and watch the pasties being made, or get them to go for a picnic, which we did. There are a few stacks of specialty British goods for sale, like treacle syrup, Yorkie bars, or cans of mushy peas.
And this case of delectable golden goodness - the pasties! You can buy them cooked and room temperature, like this, or uncooked for a take-and-bake experience. They have several varieties and weekly specials, plus soups, salads and new pork pies, but the traditional is my favorite: beef, onion, potato & veggies.
Here's Dave happy at our picnic:
Since I know that if you live in the D.C. metro area, you will now be going here, a logistical note: they are a little tricky find - the address is Church St. which is one block off of Maple, but in reality it is on an unnamed little cross street that connects the two. So driving along Church you might not see it unless you realized where you have to turn. But don't be dissuaded - there is a great parking lot and you can find it if you know where to look! Go to their website and click on "How to Find Us" for a visual and detailed description. We didn't know any of that and still found it, on our third pass.
Yay for Cornwall! Yay for meat pies! And yay for The Pure Pasty Co.!
3 comments:
So ever since the babies were born, i've been avoiding your blog. I couldn't bear reading all these recipes and not being able to try any of them. But I'm BACK! And I am so going to make those coconut key lime bars. And hooray for pasties! Did you have some clotted cream too?
So close to home and yet I've never even heard of them before. I must plan a trip there as soon as possible! :)
Cornwall was in my mission, but I never served there. The closest I got was Plymouth. We had pasties to many times than I can admit to, since they were great for lunch on-the-go. The meat pies were good, but nothing compared to a really good pasty!
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