Eh, that post title was funnier in my head than it is in pixels. Oh well.
The news from Cheap Charlies is that the restaurant has brought back the former menu, including meat pies.
“Guess what just got back today……. The Pies Are back In Town”
Yes our famous meat pies are back! Yes they are not round like before (no stock of round pie cases) But the same great taste and filling as before. Of course gravy?? Yess the real stuff! 😋🤤🥧. Only here at Foodies Restaurant and Cheap Charlies Bar.
So, the trend of undoing everything the owner Graham had instituted prior to his stroke continues. Mind you, I agree that these changes are for the better, but it just seems odd somehow. The only news I have about Graham is from the CC Facebook page:
Once again a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far, your donations really do make a difference and it is so much appreciated. Graham is still stable in ICU, we have purchased a Bed Sore mattress for him to prevent him from getting bed sores, as currently he is unable to turn in bed. He is still being intubated and being fed through the nose. Graham is responding to people when spoken too by opening his eyes and squeezing with his left hand. The fever he had seems to have now subsided and was caused by tubes in his arm giving him discomfort. These Tubes have now been re positioned. We currently think that Graham could be in ICU at least another week for monitoring. I personally will be going to see him again the early part of next week and will be talking to the doctors about his rehabilitation etc. Once again many thanks to everyone.
It doesn’t sound good to me, but here’s hoping for the best.
Anyway, this post is about the pies. Cheap Charlies was rumored to have the best in town, but before I ever got the chance to try one, Foodies had closed. When they eventually reopened they weren’t on the menu. But as mentioned above, now they are back.
Here’s how the pie looks on Facebook:
This is what I was served at the bar last night:
So, how was it? A little disappointing actually. I got the chicken and mushroom version. It was plenty meaty inside, and tasty enough. But it was cold in the middle. Not sure how that happens, unless maybe they were microwaving pre-made pies. The gravy was hot enough to warm up the cold portions so as to be edible, but still.
As things stand I cannot say Foodies has satisfied my quest to find the best pie in town. I’ll give them another shot (it was Sunday night, so maybe the regular cook was off) before passing final judgment.
But if an unsatisfactory pie is the most I have to complain about I’d say life is pretty damn good. I mean, it’s not like getting struck by lightning while walking the dogs like this guy was.
Speaking of dogs, at the SOB dance contest Friday night, the Alaska team incorporated a puppy into their act. I found it very off-putting and as a judge, I deducted a full point off their score because I thought it was cruel. On one of the forums, the owner couldn’t understand why his team’s string of home bar victories had been broken. I mentioned I thought using the dog was wrong and people said I was overreacting. One guy said he was amused because the pup looked so “astonished”. I responded that it looked terrified to me. Anyway, someone else posted a video of that portion of the act. I’m sharing it here and welcome your opinion on the matter:
Such is life.
The puppy is obviously not enjoying the proceedings. That said, it looked to me as if two different women were handling the puppy. One woman had enough consideration to use one hand to cup the puppy’s rear end. The other woman, by contrast, went full-on “shaken-baby syndrome” and held the puppy under its armpits, flailing the dog about and whipping its spine. While neither experience must have been pleasant for the dog (was it the same dog in each case?), the second lady’s technique was unconscionable.
Next time, make some papier-mâché dragons or Pokémon figures to whirl about instead of using live animals.
As for the pies you showed versus the pie you ate: I thought it was funny that the burn patterns on the crust of your pie were pretty much the negative image of what was shown on Facebook. That’s because different ovens have different hot spots; you can minimize that unevenness by rotating your pie once during baking.
The cardinal sin, though, was that your pie’s center was cold. There’s no excuse for that. I’d rather give the pie a thorough baking and send it out late than rush the baking and send it out cold. Ick. As for microwaving a pie… I’d do that only as a last resort because microwaving makes the crust soggy. In a rush, a cook could microwave a pie, then finish it off in the oven at very high heat to keep the crust crunchy.
Maybe think about making your own pies at home. Once I found that idiot-proof crust, it’s been smooth sailing ever since. I use a food processor to form the dough, but you don’t need one. If you use your hands, try to use just your fingertips to minimize contact with the dough: the butter and the water are suppressed to be very cold. If you use your whole hands when mixing the dough, you’ll warm everything up, and your crust won’t be flaky. On second thought, just buy a food processor if you don’t have one. That’s a hell of a lot easier.
Goddammit. I try to proof these comments, but the fucking auto-predictive software gets under my radar all the same. I wrote:
“the butter and the water are suppressed to be very cold”
Please switch out “suppressed” with “supposed.” Oy gevalt.
I don’t know, I grew up in South Africa where pies and sausages rolls were ubiquitous, and still are! Every gas (petrol) station would sell them, supermarkets, pie shops, pie vendors – you get the idea. Common pies were steak & kidney, pepper steak, Cornish, chicken & mushroom, chicken peri-peri, spinach & feta, cheese, and variations of the aforementioned. That pie in your pic looks weird, the pastry should be crisp but flaky, the insides not so loose/runny, and certainly not cold in the middle!
What I would recommend is making your own. Start with sausage rolls, a bit easier to make, and can practice getting the pastry right with them. Otherwise it’s always nice seeing an American eating pies that are pies (it confuses me when you guys refer to pies but really mean a sweet dessert-type pie).
Vaster, I admit that other than something us Yanks call “pot pies”, I had no experience with anything other than dessert pies. Reader Kevin Kim has been making his own pies for a while now which got me interested in seeing what the fuss is all about. Several restaurants that cater to the expat community serve them here, so I’ve been giving them a go. Not sure I’m ready to take on making my own yet, but you never know.
Kev, yeah I stand by my thinking that using the puppy in the act bordered on cruel and it was definitely unusual. And thanks for the typos…welcome to my world! 🙂