Who ate all the pies?

Put British and comfort food in the same sentence, and you can’t help but cook up images of pasties and pies. If you’re from the UK, Big Ben Pasty & Co brings a few tastes from good old Blighty, at its cosy, café-style eatery in Dubai Mall.

It’s the first official pasty & pie café in the UAE, an integral part of English culinary heritage. For the uninitiated, pasty is a short bread pastry crust with that can come in a variety of fillings — meat, vegetables, or a mix. In London, especially, Cornish pasties (which originated from the seaside county of Cornwall in the south of UK) are huge. Pies and “huge” are also used in another sense, and not exactly in a nice way. My English colleague tells me that the fat kids at school used to get called pies, promptly followed by a “LOL” in her chat. “Who ate all the pies?” they’d be chanted at...

But getting fat is the last thing on my mind as I eye up the 
menu at Big Ben. Pies, to me, have always meant the sweet, 
tart-y variety. And pasties, I have no idea, but sure want to try. Seated at Big Ben, you get the feeling of grabbing a quick, non-fussy bite at a wayside fast food outlet. The wafting aroma of freshly baked breads is enough to convince you that is the right pit stop in between your shopping trail.

For a small place, it’s a large menu — around 80 items that 
span pasties, salads, sandwiches, cookies and cakes, juices and smoothies, hot and cold coffees, ice-creams and sundaes. But 
the pasties are the definite attention-grabbers on the menu. We go in for the popular bets — chicken & mushroom pie, chicken balti and a cottage pie — all sounding very English, if you may. A chicken ceasar salad to add a healthy dose.

The balti pasty goes down especially well with us. Balti, like other subcontinent-inspired cuisines and dishes in the UK, can be an interesting amalgam of Indian flavouring for a British palate, and so it is the case with the pasty, which had a nice minced chicken filling in “curry” flavour. Most of the pasties at Big Ben are also baked, and not fried, making them a much healthier 
option. Speaking of Indian, it strikes me that the pasties are the equivalent of that favourite desi teatime or, really any-time snack — the samosa. Same doughy crust, crescent or triangle shaped, variable fillings. And no one can say no to one.

The chicken Caesar salad is pretty decent too, and we back it up with a local favourite — halloumi sandwich — and a good strawberry smoothie. The calorie-careless can go ahead and polish off a shake or sundae, while the rest of us can continue shopping with renewed vigour, and the satisfaction of having consumed some indulgent yet healthy baked delights. - marypaulose@khaleejtimes.com

Patented pasty The traditional Cornish pasty even has a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status in Europe. It is the food item most associated with Cornwall

What we liked: The pasties, of course

What we didn’t like: The cheesy vegetables pasty

Cost for two: Dh100 approx.

Contact: Food Court Area, Lower Ground Floor, 
The Dubai Mall, 043882274


Editor’s Rating: ***