We've got a triple bill for you today pie-fans!
All three were bought from the 7-11 shop opposite Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai.
Chicken and salted egg pie:
Pastry: Pasty-shaped, it looked promising, with a very nice golden sheen to it. As ever though with 7-11 pies, it tended towards the flannel in terms of texture. Possibly better hot.
Filling: Salted egg is quite a big thing in SE Asia and we were intrigued to see how it would work with chicken. Disappointingly, the shortsighted chef appeared to have reached for the sugar, not the salt. The resultant sweetish chicken with no discernible trace of egg was as unpleasant as you may be imagining.
A poor effort.
Carbonara pie:
Pastry: Displaying not quite as much flannel as the previous pie, it still lacked any basic pastry quality such as crispness, and there was rather too much of it as well.
Filling: Conversely, there was too little filling, although as it contained what I suspect was 'chopped and processed pork byproduct' perhaps that was for the best. The smear of carbonara sauce was reasonable, but nowhere near good enough to raise the overall standard.
With a bit less pastry and a lot more filling, it could have been a contender...
Spinach pie:
Pastry: Exactly the same as the previous pie and once again, too much of it.
Filling: Definitely spinach with a hint of creaminess and dare I say it, nutmeg?
Bold. (Although, once more pastry to filling ratio seriously out of whack)
Probably the best of the trio.
It should perhaps be mentioned that a) all three pies were bought and consumed a mere 15 metres from a UNESCO World Heritage site (!), and b) the much-maligned pastry seemed quite acceptable to any number of the local pigeon population.
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