British Pie Week - Day Two

SJL decided as his pie pledge for British Pie Week to go a whole day eating only savoury pies. No food would be eaten that wasn't encased in pie pastry, which meant no veg or mash with the pies either!

The day began with a pack of 4 Asda Mini Pork and Apple Pies which were consumed on the train into London. The train was quite packed and there was standing room only. Other people looked concerned by SJL's choice of breakfast. However, the pies were noted to be a great choice for breakfast, the sweetness of the apple stopped the pork being too overpowering. There wasn't much fat or gristle detected. The pastry was also not too solid, as it can be for hot water crust pastry. At £1.28 for the pack the price was fairly competitive with the Tesco pork pies reviewed recently.
4 pies eaten @ 50g and 184kcal each

Asda Mini Pork Pie Selection

Upon getting to the office SJL made the error of picking up some free fruit on the way in. Realising this mistake the offending banana was carefully put aside for tomorrow.
Lunchtime came and SJL had a plan. To counteract the heavy pork pies, he headed to The Little Greek Pie Company shop on Tottenham Street where the pies come in filo pastry. Upon arrival SJL was sad to find the shop had closed down, although the pies can still be brought in some other shops. Now desperate for a new pie to review SJL headed to EAT on Tottenham Court Road. What attracted SJL was that EAT proudly advertise that they serve pies, with this fact written about 7 times on the outside of the shop. A Steak & Ale Pie was ordered at £4.15, although SJL was careful to not get the accompanying mash. The pie was satisfying, with the inclusion of some vegetables which was a pleasant surprise. The meat was tender however SJL felt it tastest slightly like it came out of a tin. The pastry was firm enough to eat with your hands but still quite gooey on the inside. However did it do enough to justify the much higher price tag than a standard Pukka pie from a fish and chip shop? Two colleagues also got into the spirit of BPW by grabbing EAT pies along with SJL.
1 pie eaten @ 250g and 670kcal - Total 5 pies eaten @ 1406 kcal

EAT Steak & Ale Pie

The afternoon saw SJL open another two packs of Asda mini pies. Two Asda Snack Cheese & Pickle Lattice Pork Pies were eaten and 1 Asda Mini Pork & Stuffing Pie devoured. One pie was taken along to a meeting as 'brain food'. Both types of pie offered similar pastry to the ones eaten in the morning. However the pork and stuffing was found to be more fatty. All we considered by SJL to be good variations of the standard pork pie. Without the additional flavours this many pork pies would have been sickly. There were excess pies which were offered to colleagues although only one colleague took up the offer. At this point SJL found the taste of pie beginning to seriously repeat on him. Lots of coffee was drunk to try and suppress this.
1 pie eaten @ 50g and 199kcal
2 pies eaten @ 60g and 219kcal - Total 8 pies eaten @ 2043 kcal

The Cheese & Pickle Pork Pie

After leaving the office SJL had a sudden urge for a pie a bit more special than the others consumed so far. The others had been solid performers but there were certainly no gourmet pies. Hence SJL headed to Canteen on Baker Street which had been reviewed before and he knew they served some top London pies. However this is a restaurant so SJL was pleased when they agreed to do a take away pie for him. Unfortunately he didn't realise he was ordering a whole pie meal in a box! This unfortunately came at the standard restaurant price as well. However, this didn't stop the Canteen Celeriac, Mushroom and Leek Pie from being a fantastic pie. The Canteen pies always seem to achieve such a fantastic Colour and Condition. The pastry was gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside. The flavour was unusual but worked well. The crunchy celeriac and the soft mushroom provided good counterpoints to each other. The only downside is that the meal seems quite small for the price, especially when not eating the veg and mash!
1 pie eaten @ ~ 250g and 600kcal - Total 9 pies eaten @ 2643 kcal

Canteen Celeriac, Mushroom and Leek Pie

Arriving home the family had already been tucking into an Asda Chicken & Gravy Pie and Asda Steak & Winter Vegetable Pie so SJL grabbed a couple of slices of the action. At this stage perhaps SJL had just eaten too many pies but these failed to impress. Allegedly the chicken pie had puff pastry but this wasn't noticable as both had quite dry pastry. They were also quite thin so not a lot of Capacity. The chicken pie tasted particularly mass produced. The steak and winter vegetables at least gained some points for doing something a bit different. However there are nicer pies at this price.
1 pie eaten @ 138g and 337 kcal
1 pie eaten @ 138g and 382 kcal - Total 11 pies eaten @ 3362 kcal

The two Asda family sized pies

There were some near misses, at one point SJL accidentally ate some cabbage but this was safely spat out. One noticeable effect was a constant thirst due to the salty pies. But in the end a whole day was covered with only pies eaten and a record number of pies consumed in one day on the Pierate Ship. A learning experience, this showed that other food really isn't necessary. Why isn't everything encased in golden pie pastry?

Asda - Mini Pork & Apple Pies - 4.35/7
EAT - Steak & Ale - 4.25/7
Asda - Mini Pork & Stuffing Pies - 4.30/7
Asda - Snack Cheese & Pickle Lattice Pies - 4.35/7
Canteen - Celeriac, Mushroom & Leek Pie - 5.85/7
Asda - Chicken & Gravy Pie - 3.35/7
Asda - Steak & Winter Vegetable - 3.85/7

SJL Pie Count Day Two: 11
SJL BPW Total: 12


Pierateer RAS feels quite small and insignificant sitting next to SJL’s quite incredible #onlypiesallowed challenge today, but that didn’t stop him attending the Aston University Pie Night put on by Catering@Aston and having a very nice Chicken and Mushroom Pie (see separate review) and also providing Mr Kipling Apple Pies to another three colleagues at work. A number of colleagues had a look at the pie blog and planned to suggest good pies they’d eaten.

RAS Pie Count Day Two: 1
RAS BPW Total: 3


After the enormity of SJLs efforts on Day 2 of BPW, Pierateer TJP feels that the single medium-sized Pork Farm pork pie purchased from Sainsbury's delivered little to the Pierateers accumulated pie total. It was a decent enough pie, however, and the full review will be coming soon.


TJP Pie Count Day Two: 1
TJP BPW Total: 3

Day Two Total: 13
British Pie Week Total: 18