The Great Pie 'n' Mash debate.

Ha Ha the great pie and mash debate!

Well when I was younger and first started to have pie and mash, it was always served underside up. so you can have your mince asap. This was always down to my mum and nan as they were the one's who served it up at the table.
Now ive grown up (yes I have dad!) I STILL have them underside up. hee hee and serve it that way to my children too. Although my partner will always turn them back over on his plate, right way up (or is it?).
As I said, this is down to my mum and nan so I totally blame them for my strange eating habbits! haha

Maybe there should be a poll about this!

What a great Debate, perhaps we should do a poll to see what the most popular way of eating Pie and Mash is.

Making me feel hungry just reading these post.
On the point of which way you eat your pies, i'm affraid i'm with Kentlass.
Turn them upside down, break open the soft pastry and fill with hot vinegar and pepper.
Then with fork or spoon, dive in and enjoy.

From : westonstreet

There is a Pie and Mash fan club on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1645383410&ref=name#/pages/Pie-Mash/9105514642

Thanks I shall have a look.
    There was a piece in yesterdays Live magazine, I've scanned it .Shock horror! in the picture there's a knife and fork, there was a time when they just had spoon's and fork's.I'm not shure why that was, perhaps they were cheaper.There was now 'elf and safety then so I dont think it was something wierd like that.And another picture of the pie the right way up, even the bermondseyboy's pic had it that way.
  

Just Thought I would clear this very Important Debate up.
In my opinion there is only one way to eat Pie & Mash - The wrong way up, Which is the right way?
I had to personally go out and buy some just to clarify this fact.

AND THE RESULT WAS.

Perfect................................................hmmmmmmmm

Bermondseyboy

Ahhh stop it you lot! Im so craving now for pie and mash it hurts, its not easy living in kent they dont do pie & mash, well we had one now its an indian resturant NO COMPETITION The locals here just dont know what their missing.

I agree the pie is better the wrong way up which is the right way up! but more important is its got to be double pie & mash every time yummy!!!!

Typical me, always gotta be different !!  I eat my pies crusty side up and i always ask for the well done ones. As a girl i always used Joyces and how we never got poisened i dont know !! apparently (so me nan said) he was visited by the health people a few times haha - all that spit n sawdust.  Manzies was a second on the list but once i was old enough to leave the Tower Bridge Rd and venture to other areas i discovered Arments (Walworth Rd) and have to admit in my opinion they were and still are the BEST  P&M in the world !! and i get there as often as possible usually when i'm on route to Maidstone.

I remember at school it was P&M everyday (with dinner money) mon to thurs - then fish n chips friday and we werent sposed to leave the school premises at all !! - THe best thing is trying to explain exactly what P&M is to a complete novice - i've had people gag at the description and one south african friend almost threw up at the table haha - the only words for P&M are............absolute HEAVEN

I can't believe it, so much in common Webb St School, Mr Stacey eating P&M the right way up!!! and yes high bake ones, and then you spoil it. Manzies in Tower Bridge Road has to be the mecca, apart from the quality of the food' there's the location just down the road from the Greatest Bridge in the world, and this part of  Bermondsey is the centere of the civilised world and one of the most  atmospheric. Well I think so anyway,
  I haven't  been to all of them but quite a few. I liked your experience's with the P&M virgin's, I have taken freinds to try it and allthough mostlly polite (some were a bit rude)  they were not inpressed. I think its in the breeding. You have to be a Bermondsey boy or girl.
    But of one thing you are right, without doubt...........absolute HEAVEN.

me i loved to flip'em ,everything on one plate. mash,pies (always had two)stewed eels and liqour plus a nogging.
As a nipper i can remember being send down for the pie and mash and getting the liqour in a pottery jug  ,then running like mad all the way home .hmmmmm luv those pies .
i'm hoping to visit in may or june next year ,first stop Manzes.
 Does anyone recall Joyces pie &mash shop ,on the other side of the road ,up toward the Brick.

since moving up to suffolk 2 yrs ago i also have pie n mash wivdrawalls//but do have my fix when i go back to visit ? my local was deptford high street .  we used to live in lucey road and i went to monnow road girls .  the house my grandmother was born is still there in abbey street.
   and family name was ; holman;     i go back to visit couple of times a year but wudnt move back as things are so different nowa days . im just happy to visit my friends n get my fix of p n m . 
   my son is trying to perfect and es geting ther . just as well becos my grandson has been known to drive to london from maidstone just to get pie n mash .
    also loved edwards dougnuts . yum  yum  . 

          from newbe   .daydreamer

Hi Daydreamer

My Wife also lived in Lucey Road and went to Monnow Road School, also The Paperboy was from around that area (see Members Short Stories, My life in Bermondsey).
Never did try the P&M in Deptford, Always Manze's for me.
Now for the Burning question? Which way up do you eat your P&M, Crusty side up or Soft side up?

Bermondseyboy

A Walworth girl but I couldn't stand the sight of pie'n'mash let alone eat it.Most of my family & all my late husbands family loved it. The only way any of them would eat it was bottoms up.I don't know when Arments in Westmoreland Road opened but certainly all through my marriage (46years) my husband would not have it from anywhere else. If I tried to pull a crafty by getting it elsewhere he knew as soon as he split the pies open let alone tasting them. Also tell me why when I made mash he detected the slightest lump but ate with relish Arments mash which was full of lumps. He couldn't explain it himself. He always had his pie'n'mash at home. I think it was the sight of the olduns taking their teeth out to eat their jellied or stewed eels put him off eating on the premises. I used to say it was a sign of real love when I stirred the liquor while it was heating up-ugh!. Then the microwave came along-yippee. As to the use of vinegar it had to go on the liquor mainly. 
                                                margjim

When we visit my dad, we always manage a pie and mash visit, and my kids (both brought up in Orpington) look forward to it. One minor problem - my daughter won't eat the tops, so I have to finish them off for her. The things we do for our kids. Manzies was the one for me, especially as I had a Saturday job there in the mid 70s bringing the food from the dumbwaiter to the serving area. They used to throw a free lunch in near closing time as well.

Hi crosby34

Iv'e been been pondering your problem regarding you daughter "not eating the tops of pies" and exercising the little grey cells. Some things take ages to resolve, this was no exception, then suddenly after days and days would you adam and eve it! ther it was the answer--- TURN THE PIE OVER.
 
It is so simple really, now you have no top! just one pie the right way up ( if you have read the other posts you will know ther has be a great deal of controversey over the right way to eat a pie). NO !NO! NO! what am I saying its now the wrong way up but your daughter might like it like this, ( some very important Bermondseyboys do).

Confused!  I am.

Rod.

i remember joyces p&m shop as i used to go to trinity school and that p&m shop was the closest from the school at lunch time, but i must admit manze are the best ever....

  
 
 I don't want to seem bias, so I'm Posting Arments P & M Shop for those people who prefer
this as opposed to Manze.
This has got to be one of the hardest posts I have written, still we can't all have the same taste
and Arments ain't bad (just not as good as Manze)

And now for a bit of History.
 
Arment's first Eel & Pie house was started in 1914, the year of the Great War, by Mrs Emily Louise Arment and her husband William Peter Arment when they purchased an eel & pie house at 386 Walworth Road, SE17 from the Evans family.

Joyce's, best pie and mash anywhere.

Use to visit Manze's in TBR as a kid. Double P&M, lots of liqour, salt an lots of vinegar, and no flipping.