The first time I tasted a Scotch pie was very nearly the last. I had been through in Glasgow (in Scotland we always ‘go through to’ somewhere if travelling along a line of latitude) and we called in to a café near Queen Street station for what, I was assured by my new flat mate, was a delicious post-pub treat – a proper pie! At first glance it looked quite enticing and somewhat different. The pie was round and had a rim which was just big enough to hold a portion of baked beans on it. “Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face” I mused as I made my first bold incision. Well far from being “a glorious sicht” I was alarmed by what I took to be a greyish ‘ragout’ issuing from the crust. “It’s good; a proper mutton pie” I was hurriedly informed by my companion who obviously detected the apprehension with which I was approaching this delicacy. Now until that moment I had never heard ‘good’ and ‘mutton’ used in the same sentence so, being really hungry and wanting to be culturally sensitive, I pressed on with the culinary experience. But I didn’t try another pie for many a month.
I now have acquired quite a liking for a pie and have sampled some excellent offerings; Tynecastle to mention but one. So imagine my delight when I discovered upon looking in Blacks the Baker window in Dunoon that there is a campaign to encourage the increased consumption of pies in Scotland under the banner “Say Aye tae a Pie!”.
Now given that this is Dunoon it could be that the campaign was over in the eighties and that their goals have been achieved. I would love to read the Mission Statement ‘Our mission is to get all the people of Scotland eating pies’ or maybe ‘Who will eat all the pies? Aye, us!’
My research into which organisation was behind the campaign must continue and I'm expecting to find other iconic Scottish products have been given similar consideration:-
'Say Och Aye the Noo to an Irn Bru';
'Say okey dokey tae an Arbroath Smokie'.
I wishfully hope that the campaign is masterminded by NHS Scotland and that the follow-on campaign will be ‘Say Aye tae a Pie and Beans – wan o’yer five a day it seems!’
'Say Och Aye the Noo to an Irn Bru';
'Say okey dokey tae an Arbroath Smokie'.
I wishfully hope that the campaign is masterminded by NHS Scotland and that the follow-on campaign will be ‘Say Aye tae a Pie and Beans – wan o’yer five a day it seems!’
