Our first time in Cornwall, and we were keen to try an authentic Cornish pasty (and for the…read moreuninitiated, it's pronounced PAST-ee, as "in the past," not PASTE-ee, like what you'd use to stick two pieces of paper together). We asked our cab driver for a recommendation because there were multiple pasty shops in St. Ives. She was adamant: "Don't go to a pasty shop! Go to the butcher!" We happened to be driving past the butcher at that very moment, and she pointed out the shop. So when lunchtime rolled around, that's where we went.
I'm sorry we didn't get a picture of the butcher himself because he was a character. Being pasty-ignorant, I asked him what kind he had.
Butcher: "Traditional! That's the only kind I make!"
Me: "Yes, but are they all the same flavor?" (Assuming that maybe there were choices, right?)
Butcher: "Traditional!"
Me: "Okay, but WHAT'S IN THEM?" (Like, how many ways can I say this to make this man understand what I'm asking?)
Butcher: "Meat, turnip, potato. Nothing else. That's traditional. If there's anything else in there, that's not traditional."
Me: "Okay, thank you. Two, please. Are they hot? Do we have to heat them up? Do we eat them hot or cold?"
Butcher: "They're hot. They're best eaten hot."
My husband: "Do you eat them with some kind of sauce?"
Butcher: "Well, usually not if you're eating them hot. If you're eating them cold, I would eat them with sauce."
Me: "We'll eat them hot."
Husband: "But if we were eating them cold, what kind of sauce would you eat them with?" (I'm thinking, WHY DOES HE CARE? WE'RE GOING TO EAT THEM HOT!)
Butcher: "Well, I'd eat them with HP sauce." (I knew that was coming. For you Americans, it's kind of like A-1 steak sauce.)
And then the woman behind us in line pipes up: "If you're going to eat them outside, make sure you sit down with your back against a wall and hold onto them tight because the seagulls here are aggressive."
Me: We're going to take them back to our hotel and eat them indoors. It's too cold to eat them outside!"
Now the butcher and the other lady are both laughing. You can see her through the door in the photo I took after we exited. The butcher, unfortunately, is hidden behind my husband.
We took our pasties and went back to our hotel, where we sat in the dining room and ate them in peace (no sauce and no marauding seagulls). I have to say they were excellent, hearty, and filling. Some people will think that £9 each was a high price. I am here to tell you that it was very reasonable. They measured approximately 8"x4"x2" and absolutely constituted a full meal. This was maybe my favorite "new food" on this vacation! Kudos to the cabbie who gave us this recommendation, and kudos to the butcher who stands firm on what is a "traditional" Cornish pasty - especially since the following week, on a Cunard cruise ship, the buffet line was applying the label "Cornish pasty" to something that contained not only carrots (not traditional) but also something called "Quorn." I looked it up. (This may be too much information, but: "Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products made from mycoprotein, a protein derived from a natural fungus called Fusarium venenatum, offering a sustainable and versatile meat-free alternative.") I call that an abomination and was happy to have dodged that culinary bullet. *shudder*
