Volume 13 Issue 1 » 27
LAMB & GUINNESS SUET CRUST PIE
T H E FAT B A D G E R
Whoever thought pie was American
has been watching too much TV. Pies,
particularly meat pies, are the ultimate
British comfort food that traces back to
medieval England called “pyes.” I could
go further and say that the Brits adapted
pies from the Greeks and Romans, but it’s
the Brits who are still notoriously known
for them. They love their pies so much
they even dedicate a week to them called
“British Pie Week.”
British-born-and-raised chef and owner
Neil Taylor opened The Fat Badger, a
British gastropub, in 2014. It’s one of the
few gastropubs doing Brit food justice.
It offers some British classics, and some
British dishes with westcoast influences.
The menu changes daily, but the pie is
usually there, and the filling changes
frequently. Other mainstays include the
Scotch egg - which is fantastic - and mini
Yorkshire puddings.
It’s hard to find a restaurant in the city
that serves a respectable non-frozen and
non-pre-made meat pie with a homemade
crust, but here it is. It takes 40 minutes
for the pie, and Taylor isn’t taking any
shortcuts. The thicker pastry, as it should
be for British pies, is made in-house and
traditionally with beef fat, known as suet.
It allows for a savoury and crunchy crust
with a softer underside ideal for steamed
or baked pies. The pie comes piping hot on
a bed of delicious mashed potatoes that,
together with the crust, is great to just soak
up all the rich gravy.
1616 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC, V6G 2V5
(604) 336-5577
fatbadger.ca