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Best check they pies out again then, eh?
Mince Pie. £1.70. Served at Gayfield, Arbroath. Arbroath FC 1 - 2 (AET) Dundee FC. Ramsdens Cup 1st Round. 23/07/2011
A wee trip to Gayfield in Arbroath was on the cards today. Being very camply named and situated right next to the Pleasureland I'm pretty sure there has been some unfortunate male orientated dogging incidents down to a misguided google searches over recent years. We were here to play in the Ramsdens Cup. It has had a few names over the years, Dundee first held it aloft when it was known as the B&Q Cup, in recent times we've waved it around under the moniker of The BBC Alba Cup. Ramsdens are a pawnbroking firm seemingly. This is their first season as sponsers. Perhaps the shonky trophy could be fenced by the winners when the final is played in November to fund a move for a player in the January transfer window.
Arbroath is just 15 miles along the road from Dundee, it's a pleasant little seaside town popular with tourists. And why not, when the jewel in the crown is the Red Lion Caravan park there are not many better locations for a very cheap holiday. The town is situated near the mouth of the Tay estuary and it doesn't seem to matter what time of year you choose to visit there is a high wind scenario much like a Tayside version of the film Twister. While conditions may have been breezy but pleasant in Dundee the short jaunt along the road saw the winds pick up considerably.
Facilities:
Gayfield is situated right next to the Tay and it was fortunate the tide was out while the game was played as many a wild, wind-assisted clearance ended up down on the shale beach behind the South stand. Arbroath are a handy team and play in the SFL second division, a league below us. The ground has a couple of covered sections but it is mainly open terrace. This allows the Easterly wind to pummel any foolhardy spectator into near submission quite quickly. Today it was thankfully warm enough to stop it being too unpleasant.
Well over 1,000 Dundee fans travelled through, way more than an outfit of Arbroaths size is used to having visit. I resolved to get my pie in early. The stall was a small hatch staffed by a couple of juveniles. Just before kick-off there was already a hefty queue so I got in there as an early sell out was definitely on the cards here.
Pricing:
Fair pricing really. Like most places the pies were overpriced but nothing bordering on a full on wallet rape. Last season I tried to review only mince pies to bring some sort of fairness to every different ground I visited in the league and cup calender. I sat shaking like a shitting dog over my pan on many a Sunday morning for 10 months in the name of internet comedy already so this year I'm going to sample different pies, steak and perhaps the speciality numbers at different grounds. I'm sure the 3 young girls had more than one crude joke made towards them about "Funbags - 10p" today. The pricing for drinks was reasonable, the cold drinks came straight from 2 litre bottles into small plastic cups. They also sold Space Raiders. Never a bad thing, surely? Considering the huge volume of punters the girls served as quick as they could. Like most smaller grounds they keep it simple on the hot food front with just 2 pie options. Forget about a hot dog or a burger. This is probably sensible as a strong gust of North Sea wind could easilly send a flimsy bun all the way over to the nearby and popular Kerrs mini railway causing some sort of small scale derailment. I was told the mince pie was my only option as the last steaker had rather annoyingly been sold to the patron in front of me. More on that later. The warning signs were there when the lassie plucked my product not from an oven or even a makeshift pie warmer, but a cardboard box. Ooft.
A look at the Gayfield Pie:
Presentation: The pie came on a serviette and the first thing to note, the pie was a bizarre mix of being both cold but still sweating like Gary Glitter in a backstreet bar in Bangkok. All sorts of animal trans-fats were leaking out of it before I'd even taken a chomp. The crust seemed golden and properly fired at some point, maybe at the end of last season. Unless a small 2 bar electric fire was stationed in the cardboard box it emerged from I guess a cold pie was to be expected. The lid of my pie had an avante garde crimped lid section sticking out of one side. An unusal feature. 3/10.
Crust: This actually had some potential, probably the strongest point about the pie. The one I was handed had clearly been near fully cooked elsewhere but sadly it had been left to go tepid before serving. In this state there was no real bite to the crust of this pie but fully warmed through this could have been really good. There was a few layers to it when you tucked in. First came a slippery but chewy outside that gave way to a layer of softer membrane like pastry that was probably keeping the whole thing together. Heated to any sort of level and we'd have been onto something decent with this one. 5/10.
Filling: Again, hot or even a little lukewarm and this pie would have been getting well above average marks. It was moist and more than a little greasy, you had to keep working your serviette around as that soaked up both the exterior meat sweats as well as the grease overun from the filling. The pie was filled to the brim though and the mince filling seemed of decent quality. I'm sure this would have been very tasty if fully warmed through. 5/10.
Consistency: Game over man. It was a technical lift-test pass I suppose, most pies on a serviette served up to punters standing on terracing manage 10 seconds in hand. 2 bites in the soft pastry wall construction led to an inward folding and a small stream of cold grease running to my palm. The pie did the meat-Titanic and folded in on itself. After a third bite confirming it was cold right through to the centre I launched it to the terracing before I subjected my jeans and shoes to an embarrasing mince and grease shower. It was interesting for me to note that even after 120 minutes of football the bold Arbroath seagulls has still left it alone. 1/10.
Overall: 3/10 Piping hot this could have been an early frontrunner in the seasons pie contenders. The potential was there with a nice crust and generous filling but sadly the lack of pretty much any heat and the sweaty and wobbly state of the crust means the plucky seasiders only just scrape beyond the bottom of the pie-barrell.
Fifespud vs The Last Steak Pie:
I missed the steak pie by the skin of my teeth. Turned out the guy who made the purchase was 1 man in front of me and aware of the pie reviewing thing and introduced himself. Me taking a picture of the price list probably gave the game away. This is what the last steak pie looked like. It looked nasty. Best of luck to your hoop today, Fifespud. A pleasure to meet you.
Gayfield Park, Arbroath.
"Yeah, come to Pleasureland! There is only a slim statistical chance of your child being impaled on the fencing close to our bungie/trampoline combo things!"
Next Saturday I'm braving Dumbarton in the League Cup, 1st round. Wish me luck.
This post has been edited by Big Gus: 21 August 2011 - 17:30
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