A PIE lover who travelled the UK in search of pastry perfection has named Cardiff’s own Clark’s Pies in his top ten.
From his home town in Wigan – the “pie capital” – Martin Tarbuck travelled from Scotland to Suffolk to find the perfect pie. Along the way he judged 314 different pie establishments on the nine P’s – “premises, purchase, place, pastry, presentation, package, palate, price and portion”.
Despite naming Green’s Bakery in Barrow, Cumbria, as his winner, Mr Tarbuck included only one Welsh name in his top ten – Clark’s Pies.
When describing his trip to their store in Grangetown, he said: “Pulled up in a working class area of Cardiff to be hit by the sweet aroma of baking, and students wheeling shopping trollies back to the supermarket they carried them from the previous night just to get the quid back.”
And the pie itself? “It’s a mountain of pie for a quid,” he said. “It’s dark, deep and devious with a dense, rock-shaped crust and the official CLARPIE stamp on the underside.
Clark’s original small potato and beef pie“No sooner than I have bit into it, I end up with a ‘Clark’s tache’ as they call it in these parts, with peppery gravy spilling onto my top lip. Hmmmm heavenly.
“You see Clark’s Pies originated in Cardiff and still thrive and survive there to this very day.”
The pie lover also said: “The way Hugh Hefner parades in his dressing gown surrounded by a bevy of beauties is how I feel when you put pies in front of me.”
Mr Tarbuck has released a book about his UK-wide hunt, aptly entitled Life of Pies. It lists each pie he sampled on his journey as well as revealing various pie-related anecdotes.
For more information, or to order the book, visit: www.lifeofpies.co.uk.
