Changed things up a bit today and had breakfast at the Arizona resort here in Barretto.
Now, I eat at Arizona a couple of times a month, so dining there this morning wasn’t so unusual. In fact, I was just there on August 2 and blogged about an unusually unsatisfactory breakfast of biscuits and gravy. What was different this time is that I didn’t order breakfast at all, despite it being just a little after 8:00 a.m.
It seems I’ve developed an interest in pasties and meat pies since I’ve been reading about Kevin Kim’s exploits in the kitchen. Commenter Thirsty also gave an Englishman’s perspective on this subject, including a mention of a cottage and shepherd pies. My quest is to sample all available options on offer here in Barretto, so a pie for breakfast it is!
Granted, the was my first ever cottage pie; but was I wrong to think a pie by definition has a crust? I actually went back to look at the menu again (and take the photo above) just to be sure. Now, there is no mention of a crust per se, but “baked to a golden brown” is certainly misleading. What the fuck was baked to a golden brown, the potatoes?
Okay, Google is my friend. It seems the consensus is that a cottage pie can have a pastry crust or a mashed potato crust. Live and learn.
Anyway, it was quite tasty and I ate it all. It just wasn’t what I was expecting. And so the quest continues.
Coincidentally,, my friend John was up the beach having breakfast with his girlfriend at By the Sea resort. He sent me this photo of the beach there:
In other news, we had a few hours of sunshine yesterday afternoon. Once I’d finished my rant about Monday’s shitty urban Hash trail, I decided to take to the mountains and get some relief.
I hadn’t been up on My Bitch for about a month I guess. Despite the rain, the paths were in surprisingly good shape. Muddy in places and a tad slippery here and there, but not bad overall.
Now one thing I didn’t like was that with a reduced amount of traffic the path was overgrown with that tall grass-like plant, making it hard at times to follow the trail. In fact, I wound up missing my planned turn and found myself here:
It turned out to be a nice little adventure and by golly, I’m going to go back up to the mountain right now! Thanks for reading!\
Morning, Arizona morning
Almost sets me free
Makes me glad to be alive
Wondering,
Why I started wandering
Should have stayed right here
Underneath the clear blue skies
In the morning, Arizona morning
A place where I can smile
And see a hundred miles away.
Always feels a little surreal to see tires being used as stairs.
As I wrote in a previous comment, I don’t normally think of cottage/shepherd pies as true pies, at least in terms of having a legitimate crust made of dough. I didn’t realize that dough crusts were possible with these dishes; I personally have never seen either type of pie made with an actual crust—the top is always a layer of mashed potato.
I think of cottage/shepherd pies as cousins of Greek moussaka. Moussaka is roughly the same concept, but with different herbs, tomato (sauce), and eggplant in addition. Very hearty.
Yeah, out in the boondocks, tires for stairs is pretty common place.
Well, the cottage pie I had today was in fact quite tasty. I was just expecting a crust. I think now that I was mistaken in doing so…different animal than the pasties we had discussed.