Food & Drink

MANZE'S PIE AND MASH

Comments (5)

16 March 2007

Manze’s Pie and Mash
(Delivery Option)
www.manze.co.uk
Tel: (0207) 2776181

PIES THE LIMIT AT THE 'WEEKENDER'

Normally this page is full of beautiful restaurants, haute cuisine cooking and some of the most exotic gastronomic treasures Southwark has to offer

However, journalists aren’t rich people and they have to eat as well. So, when a few of us were enjoying ‘Caff Friday’ down The Blue last week, we were struck by the amount of attention one particular story in the paper was gaining. Despite all the potential attention grabbing stories, it was one more than any that was drawing people in. Manze’s are sending out chilled food, which you have to re-heat yourself.

The crux of this conversation was whether the posted pies and mash would taste the same as the pie and mash on your plate on Tower Bridge Road or in Peckham.

We thought we’d test it out.

So, it came to Tuesday lunchtime, I’d worked up an appetite by visiting both Rotherhithe and East Dulwich in the morning and we were ready to go.

The first thing that struck me about the posted Manze’s experience is how bloody tantalising it is! When you go to the shop, your belly can be immediately filled - when you open the box, you have to wait whilst you re-heat the thing yourself. Torture!

As you dig through the layers of packaging your hunger grows stronger and stronger. By the time you’ve got the liquor at the bottom of the box, you’re almost ready to blow!

You have to look at the food - cold and inedible but still instantly recognisable as pie and mash - take them out of the packet and sit there and wait whilst it slowly cooks up. Immediate gratification at Manze’s Famous Pie and Mash Shop this was not. However, soon there were enticing smells filling the office and it felt like we were ready to roll.

The problem with this exercise was the same one you’d get by judging a fry-up fresh out of the oven. It has its name for a reason. Sausages, bacon, eggs and the rest are supposed to be made with lashings of fat and on a hob.

It may not be healthy and it may give you a diabolical sense of guilt afterwards, but that is just the way it is and the way Britons have enjoyed their food for generations.

The same goes with pie and mash. Manzes’ lofty and enduring reputation is based on a secret recipe and traditional food cooked the traditional way.

Allowing the product to be DIY-ed by all and sundry reduces the mystique, but the correct cooking equipment could probably compensate for that.

Sadly for us at the ‘Weekender’, the only instrument we had to work with was a microwave. No oven is the equivalent to no hobs on a fry-up; it does the job but lacks the authenticity.

Salivating, as I was when the title ‘Heat Instructions’ had the words pies, liquor, mash and stewed eels underlined beneath it (surreal, I know), my enthusiasm dampened when it stated that ‘for best results’ an oven and a hob were both required.

So the outside of the pies were chewy and the liquor was lumpy but the mash, being the least sophisticated of them all, had that distinctive Manzes taste.

And so did the pies once you delved inside the pastry which, when it boils down to it, was all we were looking for.
Up to this point, the only argument amongst Manzes lovers has been which outlet tickles your pickle more, Peckham (which edges it in my view) or Tower Bridge Road?

Now there is a new addition to the debate. It comes in a cardboard box, plastic containers and silver dishes.

It is available from east of Folkestone to north of Inverness and I have no qualms that, given the correct equipment, it will spark another wave of healthy debate on just how similar it is to the real thing.

FOOD (1-5) 3
AMBIENCE (1-5)  5
PRICE VALUE (1-5)  3
DISABLED ACCESS YES
DISABLED TOILET YES
PRE-BOOKING OBVIOUSLY

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Comments (5)

1. At 11:19 PM on 10 Jan 2008, Ken & Jean Jacobs wrote:
Still enjoying Manze's Pie & Mash up here in North Lincolnshire........... What a life saver they are... Pie & Mash forever!!!!!!!!
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2. At 02:29 PM on 24 Feb 2008, Brian Hall wrote:
ordered a week back came on the right day, couldnt wait until evening to get at it, came in good shape cooked up well tasted great,took a while to cook up,so glad i found the site.its a pity peckham has changed so much i am glad MANZES HASNT.thanks Manzes.
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3. At 09:14 PM on 09 Jul 2008, Janina Coates wrote:
I'm sick of you lot in the south getting all the good stuff. When is someone going to open a pie and mash shop in Blackpool. Scotland's got them, even Australia's got them, but us here in the north of England, we have to suffer. I have only been able to get pie and mash twice in the last eight years when I've been in London and it's time we had a look in. In fact I think this might be against my human rights. I'll have to look into that...Mmm Unhappy Janina, Blackpool
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4. At 03:15 PM on 06 Feb 2009, Bob Hunt wrote:
I unfortunately lived in Milton Keynes for a while when they were first building the so called city, somone wanted to have a Pie & mash Shop in the City Centre, but it was blocked because so ill informed PERSON decided it would lower the tone of the area. Stuck up snobs who haven't tasted real food like Pie, Mash & Liquor.
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5. At 11:11 PM on 18 May 2009, kim shaw wrote:
recently ordered pie n mash from manzes, order came when expected, very well packaged, absolutely delicious, live in stoke-on-trent and miss pie n mash so much, so pleased will order again and again, could eat every day!
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