With advancing age has come a graceful acceptance of my latent Anglophilia. Much of this serenity owes to the creeping realization that proficiency in any of the continental languages is unlikely; consequently, a thwarted expatriate’s aspirations might as well be confined to areas where the Mother Tongue is spoken.
There but for chronic linguistic underachievement, I might have been a Czech, German or Belgian. Perhaps in my next life.
Yesterday (Saturday 25 January) Manze’s pie-and-mash shop on Deptford High Street in southeast London closed permanently. As The Economist observes, the capital’s pie-and-mash shops “are at risk of becoming as rare as Cockney rhyming slang.”
According to The Pie and Mash Club, a refuge for culinary aficionados, as few as 40 such shops remain in London. Around 300 operated in the mid-19th century, when the city was home to far fewer people.
The fare, sometimes referred to as the “original fast food”, has changed little over the years: an oval meat pie served with a generous helping of mashed potatoes, all swimming in a parsley gravy called “liquor”. Eels, which were once plentiful in the Thames, accompany the pie in either stewed or jellied form. The shops’ interiors are often as standardised as the menu. White tiles cover the walls and black-and-white photos of the original owners may hang behind the bar. Some establishments have sawdust-covered floors and long communal tables or benches.
The decline of pie and mash is attributed to the usual reasons, with high food costs (the Thames again supports edible eel, albeit far pricier than before) and rents, gentrification and changing tastes topping the list. So it was in 2013, when last we visited my wife’s ancestral homeland (her mother hailed from Plymouth in the West Country).
In particular, back then the A. Cooke’s Pie and Mash Shop in Shepherd’s Bush (in business since 1899; not to be confused with F. Cooke) was thought to be in imminent danger. In fact the the venerable on-premises shop subsequently ceased operations, although more than a decade later the firm continues to cook, ship and deliver its edibles.
This makes me happy. One day in London in 2013 provided time enough to eat at A. Cooke’s — and another bucket list item received its squiggly check mark. Here is the account I wrote at my former blog.
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We left Plymouth by rail before eight and debarked in Paddington Station a bit after eleven. A short taxi ride brought us to the Brook Green Hotel on Shepherd’s Bush Road in Hammersmith. There would be time for two meals and whatever else might present itself during an afternoon’s walk, for we had concluded that (a) London is far too massive to even try more than a neighborhood’s strolling approach in a half-day, and (b) we’d leave the camera packed and rely on our memories rather than be worried about money shots.
It was happy coincidence that D had found a hotel owned by the Young’s pub chain in the very neighborhood where members of The Who grew up, just down the way from Goldhawk Road and A. Cooke’s Pie & Mash Shop, equidistant from the Thames.
Lunch was taken at A. Cooke’s … which is to say, she watched me eat pie (steak & kidney); mash (potatoes); eel (stewed); and liquor (parsley sauce made from stewed eel broth).
Welcome to A. Cooke’s Pie & Mash Shop in the Heart of Shepherds Bush
To us, at Cooke’s Pie and Mash Shop, food is synonymous with freshness and quality. We are your quintessential Pie Mash & Eel shop which preserves one of London’s great traditions: lovely pie, mash and liquor! Our pies and mash are made freshly on the premises daily, we also use real potatoes not reconstituted. All of our food is available as take away.
The unexpected bonus was the Shepherd’s Bush Market, under and adjacent to the tube track, just a couple doors down from A. Cooke’s. The staggering cultural diversity of the neighborhood fairly drips from every one of the market’s pores. We must have heard two dozen languages spoken while browsing.
Welcome to the NEW Shepherds Bush Market, London
Dating back to the early part of the last century, Shepherd’s Bush Market stands on the East side of the railway viaduct between Uxbridge Rd and Goldhawk Rd. Serving both the local Irish and Afro-Caribbean community, it’s a good place to head for music CDs, fresh and cooked foods, yams and other exotic fruits plus household goods and furnishings.
After a coffee stop, it was back to the hotel to check in, followed by a walk in the other direction, down Shepherd’s Bush Road to the Thames and the Hammersmith Bridge. At this point we were dozens of miles away from where the Thames meets ocean, and yet the river remains tidal for another ten miles west of the bridge and was at very lob ebb as we viewed in mid-afternoon.
Shopping and pub stops followed, and it came time to organize the evening. The following day’s taxi to Heathrow already had been booked. We glanced across the street from Brook Green and spotted the Los Molinos restaurant, a Spanish tapas joint, and decided to eat there.
On a hot and humid day, grass wilting in the park nearby, their gazpacho, fresh sardines, salad and other small plate options proved superlative with inexpensive house wine. A Young’s ale was dessert, and a stifling night’s sleep followed.
Cover photo credit: F. Cooke’s pie and mash purveyor.
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“Edibles & Potables” is Food & Dining Magazine’s Sunday slot for news and views that range beyond our customary metropolitan Louisville coverage area, as intended to be food (and drink) for thought.
Last time:
Edibles & Potables: “Once good taste is learned, there is no return”
