Monday, July 14, 2008

steak and kidney pie

As I walked towards MacDonalds bakery today, I knew today would be the day. Today I would finally try steak and kidney pie. perhaps the most iconic of all meat pies, steak and kidney pie has remained one of those outlandish concepts to me, skirting the domain of meat pie possibility. The sort of thing I would occasionally think of trying, and then going, "You mean kidney? the filtration organ? those kidneys? nah." but today was the day. As I walked boldly towards the bakery, the scene that kept replaying in my mind was a bit from the simpsons, back when the show was good, when lisa was going to england. Marge is reminding her "in england, they have kilometers instead of miles, grams instead of pounds, and Steak and Kidney pie instead of botchulism." Steak and Kidney pie instead of botchulism. Steak and Kidney pie instead of botchulism. In marge's nag nag naggy voice. This was coming right at me from the built in playback circuit next to the id ego and superego on the modern brain. Was I about to get in over my head? We who are about to dine salute you. So I place my order, and I bite in, tentatively at first, but with growing zeal. this isn't half bad. any meat pie fanatic who happened to be raised on deli food will note the similarity between Steak and Kidney pie and chopped liver. this is like a pie made of warm chopped liver and gravy. It was actually quite comforting. this really does make a lot of sence, when you consider the similar functions of kidneys and livers, from a biological standpoint. The kidney added greatly to the stability of the pie, making the overall filling a bit like a delicious meat pudding. I guess the point is, give something a try, and if you're not too hung up on obscure ingredients, you might be pleasantly surprised.

6 comments:

mpl said...

dental plan.

lisa needs braces.

dental plan.

lisa needs braces.

BIg Large said...

what would happen if there was a pie with kidney, liver, spleen, and pancreas? and maybe throw a little gallbladder in there.

I dunno if theres a pie of it, but gizzards are quite good. I've had it on salad, and duck gizzards are pretty bomb.

Diana said...

in my head, i'm going to refer to this as your pie-ary (think "diary")

meatpiereview said...

wow, these are the most comments i've gotten on an update so far, let's see

1) yep, that's the feedback i'm Talkin' about

2) that would be one boss pie. I don't even know what part of the body gizzards are, and i want them in a pie, aren't gizzards just left over bits and pieces, or is that giblets?

3) yeah, that was totally the point of the fancy fancy header

BIg Large said...

yeah, giblets are random pieces of organs. Gizzards are found in birds/reptiles and lower on the phylogeny tree. Though according to wikipedia, gizzards can also be used as a general term for guts. But specifically, the gizzard in said animals are a digestive organ (so not really filtration). Though they do have giblet pie in the South

After food is digested by enzymes, it goes into the gizzard where it is mechanically broken up, usually with rocks that the animal eats. It doesn't sound sexy, but its tasty

meatpiereview said...

so in giblet pie... you get a bonus meal of whatever the last thing the bird ate? hardcore.