Wednesday 20 August 2014

Pastry related thoughts

The Lithuanian lady that works in the pasty shop gave me a free pasty once. I sneezed a polite 'thank-you' (the Lithuanian for 'thank-you' is pronounced 'achoom') and went about my day - my inner being warmed by that simple act of human kindness (and delicious peppery skirt steak folded in shortcrust pastry). Whenever I felt pessimistic about human nature, I would think back to that day and wonder if I'd ever see such a purely altruistic act again.

That was four years ago. A few weeks ago, I went into Louis's Deli on St Giles street to order a sausage roll to eat at work during a Tuesday day shift...

(You may be wondering why I was in Louis's when I walk right past the Upper Crust bakery on my way to work. The Upper Crust sausage roll is a travesty in my opinion. Twice the length and half the price of his cousin at Louis's he may be. But the rusk to meat ratio is way too high and they always leave me with a vague sense of disappointment and mild nausea. I would always recommend making the trip over the bridge to Louis's if you have the time and, if you don't have the time, Upper Crust do a passable date and chocolate flapjack. Because it is covered in chocolate the staff always warn you that it contains dates. A policy that I like to assume was brought in because so many were returned: "Ugh! Someone's put dried fruit in my chocolate-covered golden syrup oat bar!")

...and the servitor announced that she had given me two for the price of one because that day's batch were burnt on the underside.

There's bound to be a moral in this somewhere. Memories bake where pastry flakes or something. I'm not terribly good at morals.

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