Cornish Pasty #2: Philp's Bakery

My buddy and I, along with two others, took a long walk from Penzance station to the ancient town of Marazion to visit St Michael's Mount. We never imagined that we'd take so long to reach our destination... what we thought might have been a 20 minute walk actually took 50 minutes, and no, we weren't walking slowly.

Unfortunately we couldn't access the castle grounds on the mount, but the long walk was worth it because I got to taste one of Cornwall's finest store-bought pasties. As we were heading towards Philp's, I spotted a Rowe's outlet nearby and asked if we might want to head there instead, as I have heard favorable reviews of their pasties. To my delight, she replied "Those from Philps are really good!"

Surfing the web, I spotted many raves about the pasties from Philp's, claiming those from their outlet at Hayle to be the best ones you can buy in Cornwall. Nevertheless, the pasties sold at their other outlets have received stellar ratings as well.

It was already 2pm when we reached there, but I heard that this small shop is usually very busy at lunchtime. I decided to get a meat pasty, but unfortunately realized that they were only available in the large size as I was about to pay.

I was rather astonished by the sheer mass of the pasty as it was passed into my hands... it was definitely large enough to feed two. I was curious to find out the length of the pasty but did not have a ruler with me, so I took a photo of it with a bottle of sunscreen, which I've measured to be 9.1cm in length.

Using that as a comparison, I figured out that the length of the pasty of 23.2cm and its breadth, 11.8cm. Come on, grab a long ruler from your stationery collection and figure out how humongous the dimensions of that pasty was!

Large mince pasty (2 pounds 70p)

The freshly baked pasty consisted of the standard onion, swede, potato and mince filling in a wonderfully flaky pastry case. Other than that the beef mince came in lumps that were slightly too large, and was a bit rough in texture, I had no complaints about this pasty. The pastry to filling ratio was just right, and the flaky pastry was well-executed- light and perfectly puffed-up. The pasty would have fared even better if the gravy had a bit more kick though.

While the flaky pastry case went well with the moist filling, some argue that traditional Cornish pasties use shortcrust pastry, although both types are generally accepted.

For those who're curious, I started feeling full after finishing half the pasty. I was contemplating saving the rest for later, but decided to gobble it all up anyway so that I can declare that I finished it whole at one go. All in 10 minutes!

Slightly guilty about all the fat I'd consumed, I was considering having just a light snack for dinner (but ended up having fish and chips anyway, surprising the only deep-fried food I had on the trip aside from potato crisps). Definitely, I ended up very full... but not quite as stuffed as I usually get at buffets.