Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Cornish Pasty, Plus Judy Blume Reference

When I was a kid my mother made cornish pasties, which she learned from a friend of hers who grew up in England. I always assumed them to be a purely English thing, and as Wikipedia says
The origins of the pasty are largely unknown, although it is generally accepted that the modern form of the pasty originated from Cornwall. Tradition claims that the pasty was originally made as lunch ('croust' or 'crib' in the Cornish language) for Cornish tin miners who were unable to return to the surface to eat. The story goes that, covered in dirt from head to foot (including some arsenic often found with tin), they could hold the pasty by the folded crust and eat the rest without touching it, discarding the dirty pastry.
Although I have thought of them often over the years and hadn't seen one in decades, last night Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations was in Butte, Montana, where apparently the pasty also blew up in the mines:
It was also said by miners in the Butte, Montana, USA area, that a pasty was "as welcome as a letter from 'ome (home)."

The pasty might be closest thing to a Proustian moment I could have; pleasant memories flooded back to me as I watched him eat the pasty. Maybe I'll try and make one, can't be too hard. Then again, maybe I won't.

1 comment:

Mr. Bad Example said...

Go to Myers of Keswick in the West Village. They've got pasties, and lots of other weird things the Brits eat, like chicken-flavored potato chips (which aint bad).

www.myersofkeswick.com

And a bonus trivia fact: it's two doors down from where the Real World: Back to New York cast lived.