Between meetings today we drove between Christchurch and Dunedin. We forgot how long it takes. So the drive was made easy by the anticipation of one of the great culinary delights of the south. A
MacGregors Mutton Pie at Palmerston.. They make your arteries quiver.
They are made with cold water pastry which is made with lard. In the middle was a
pattie of mutton ( not lamb mince but smelly old mutton)
and it was softened with breadcrumb so it held together nicely all soft and squishy and it was laced with salt and white pepper.
And the little
pattie floated in a silky pool of warm fat.
There was a hole on the top and you poured off the excess fat. Then we used to eat the crunchy pastry off and then the rest of the pastry and finally we would consume the
pattie.
It was saturated fat overload and a dream to eat. So from about
Ashburton we started to think of the mutton pie from
MacGregors Bakery in Palmerston.
At about
Timaru we needed to pee. but we held on to shorten the time it would take to get to Palmerston as we knew that the bakery was about to close.
We finally got there, dashed for the loo. Then off to the bakery. There were two mutton pies left. The owner assured me they were fresh.
We sat outside in the rental. We grabbed three serviettes in anticipation of having to pour out the fat. Nothing came. Not a drop - it was dry.
We nibbled at the pastry and noticed it wasn't the gluey white colour but sort of yellowish.
It was just okay but not made of lard.
So we lifted the lid on our childhood memory and were faced with a
pattie that looked just like a
MacDonalds sausage
pattie.
We scrunched it into the packet and chucked it on the floor in abject disappointment.
We didn't cry , no really we didn't - but we sighed a lot all the way to
Karitane. And then things got all blurry and we turned on the wipers to clear the windscreen. It didn't work. But we
werent crying... truly....We wouln't cry over a crap pie....
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