Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Pie, Mash and Liquor

Years and years ago I had an obsession with pie and mash shops. My idiot boyfriend at the time was studying interiors at the RCA so he was fascinated too and over a year or two, the pair of us visited every single pie and mash shop that London had. I looked at the pastry and he looked at the tiles. It always felt to us like these places were running out of time and all these years later, lots of them have now closed down.

After a hectic morning at Peckham Pulse doing soft play and swimming in the hydro-pool, me and Scrap walked round the corner to Manzes on Peckham High Street (on that spot since 1927). We both loved it - it was packed with all ages, everyone seated beside strangers along the marble tables and all eating exactly the same. Scrap cleared his plate and while he was still eating was asking if we could come again. Well, yes we can. Everything we ate tasted great, was very fresh and was cooked from scratch on the premises that same morning.
A fine example of British food at its best.

Other recommended pie and mash houses:
Arments, Westmoreland Road, just off Walworth Road
Manzes, Tower Bridge Road
Bert's, Peckham Park Road, just off Old Kent Road
G. Kelly, Roman Road, Bow
F. Cooke, Hoxton Street

21 comments:

Rob said...

Manze's would be number 11 in my chart. Sadly, the one near my office is RUBBISH :(

Silvana said...

What's the one near your office?

BLTP said...

It's a big shame the one in Greenwich has shut down (goddard's), there's to in deptford. have you been to the cockney Diaspora one's in Tooting and Croydon. As a northern I always think they could do with some red cabbage, mint sauce and of course some peas!

Rob said...

There's a Manze's on Chapel Market - we went there with Nick - but it's just no good. Bad mash, insipid pies etcetc

Anonymous said...

I've never been to a pie and mash shop (may change the next time we go to peckham pulse). just what is the liquor?

Anonymous said...

Is it true that the pies used to have oysters in them back in the good old days, to make up the filling with the meat. I'm sure I read this somewhere. The oysters were apparently a great deal cheaper than the meat and they added a nice salty flavour and more substance to the fillings. I'm sure this is somehow linked to the liquor, as they used to call the sea liquid that came off the oysters liquor.

Silvana said...

This is all very interesting isn't it!
What a terrible shame about Goddard's - they'd been going since the 1890s.
All pie and mash shops claim their lquor is made to a special secret recipe but it is basically parsley sauce and is tradionally made using some of the poaching liquid used to cook the jellied eels. I want to find out more about the oysters and their liquor as I agree, it must be linked.

More Chips (with gravy) on my shoulder said...

Bad mash and the insipid pies. There's a name for a band!

Anonymous said...

you can't still think I'm an idiot after all this time

BLTP said...

go here for far too many pies http://www.flickr.com/groups/pies/pool/

Silvana said...

Oh I like that link BLTP - Pie Club! Thank you.
Now what's the name of the place I need to go to in Tooting?

BLTP said...

I think it was a branch of manzes that have had mixed reviews here!

Mel said...

It's just such a shame that Liquor is GREEN......

Drunk Mummy said...

I went to Manzes once (always amazed to see people doing takeaway mash in a paper bag!). I was hugely disappointed that the Liquor didn't in fact contain any liquor - not even creme de menthe.

Rob said...

BOOM! TISH!
Thank you, Drunk Mummy!

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know, Manzes at Chapel Street & Walthamstow are both outside of the family. Perhaps this is one reason why there are mixed opinions on Manzes pie & mash.

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Purple Prom Dresses said...

THis looks really great! I love apple season because you can make so many delicious desserts with apples!!

marionmannall said...

Agree about Goddards. It was great Pie and Mash and shame it closed. Also like Arments in Walworth. Does anyone remember Joyce's in Tower Bridge road?(long gone now)was a great place with sawdust on the floor and lovely food. Must agree about Manzes as the quality varies greatly from shop to shop.

Cialis said...

This recipe looks delicious!

Anonymous said...

Cookes in goldhawk road is the best, second is Clarkes in exmouth market , third is arments in Westmorland st, worsed is Cockneys in portobello rd..... Well that's my opinion anyway