British Pie week - Kris

Question of the week: Apparently this week is British Pie Week, which is as good a reason as any to ask about pie recommendations - pies to make, places to buy pie, places to eat pie ...

"First, I would like to say that this topic inspired my husband and me to go out and get pies for dinner last night. (We went to Waitrose, if anyone cares, and the pies were very, very nice.)

Now, on to the topic: Where to buy and eat pies: football matches.

Believe it or not, I would not have put myself in the 'pie fan' camp before I moved to Britain. They were okay, I liked apple and pumpkin, but that was pretty much the end of my pie vocabulary. Then, one bitterly cold afternoon, James convinced me to go to a football match. And a great love was born.

If you haven't been to a football match in Britain yet, I highly recommend it. It is a lot of fun, especially if you understand the rules (or sit near people who do). But one word of warning: no matter how nice a day it is outside of the football ground, it will be freezing inside. This goes double for lower division stadiums. I don't know why this is, but it is a generally accepted fact.

The match we were at was Coventry vs. Plymouth Argyle (not a match for the ages, but fun nevertheless). About ten minutes after half-time, James could see that he was losing me - I was cold and very confused about the off-sides rule (again). Coffee at the half had helped, but not enough. He knew that if he wanted to stay until the end of the game he would have to do something. (Pubs around football grounds are not a nice place for a lone American woman on game day. Not necessarily dangerous, but no one would understand why I was there, including me.)

Thinking on his feet, he hurried away, and returned with, you guessed it, a hot chicken and mushroom pie. It warmed me up, made me feel better about my total lack of understanding about the finer points of football, and we stayed until the end. Everyone was happy.

(I can't tell you who won, I was too wrapped up in eating my pie to care...)"- Kris

* Photo by Sifter, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.