Tuesday 21 November 2017

Football Pie: Moor Pukka Pies

The 1st round of the FA Cup saw me venture outside the football league when I went to Solihull Moors for their 0-2 defeat at the hands of the mighty Wycombe Wanderers. Perhaps because the Moors were struggling at the bottom of the National League there was a disappointingly poor attendance for what was one of the biggest matches in their history. The 807 Wycombe fan actually outnumbered the home fans who were very quiet. The Wycombe fans even took it upon themselves to sing the name of the Solihull goalkeeper when he was announced as the man of the match.


The bumper away crowd was perhaps why the catering suffered some problems. There were massive queues at what was effectively just a burger van parked to the side of the away stand. I got to the front and was dismayed at the lack of choice. Meat in bread was really the only option on view despite the clear superiority of meat in pastry.  (Who prefers bread to pastry?!?) I asked about pies and was initially told they didn't have any. However, upon seeing how crestfallen I was he shouted to someone else who confirmed that there was one pie left in the beer tent just behind the stand. This had now been closed off so someone had to pass the pie to me through the railings. I handed £3 back through the railings in return. I didn't ask about the flavour because it didn't really matter. If this was the last pie I was eating it whatever flavour it was! Sadly, this is not the first time we have found pies not readily available in a football ground, which is a shame when pies and football are so closely associated.

Returning to my seat I tried to guess the flavour of the pie. I thought it looked like Steak and Kidney so got a surprise to find out it was Chicken Balti when I took my first bite! Fortunately it was easy to tell who made the pie because it had the Pukka pie logo on the bottom of the foil. I have enjoyed the Pukka Balti pies a few times before and this one was equally enjoyable. Thankfully it wasn't burnt like the last few Pukka pies I have had. Rather than being too hard, this time the pastry was too soft! It was so soft it fell apart while eating it. I was thankful for the plate which caught most of the pie contents as I ate the pastry. This was pretty messy and certainly not an ideal pie to eat at the football. Despite being soft, the pastry wasn't raw and did seem fully cooked.

The contents tasted pretty good although unspectacular. It had a bit of spice but was not overly hot. Like most Pukka pies, the thick sauce was tasty but it was heavy on the salt. There was a reasonable amount of chicken buried in the sauce. Unsurprisingly it was pretty similar to when I have had this pie before. Therefore a fairly decent effort but a bit uninspiring to find that clubs outside the Football League are also entralled by the Pukka pie empire.

Chicken Balti (Solihull Moors/Pukka)
4.23/7

SJL



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