The Best Pasty in The World?
I hadn’t actually realised that there was an outside seating area behind the Pier Cafe on Prince of Wales Pier in Falmouth. It was a pleasant surprise. The sun was out and it was very warm. Carol, Milou, and I sat and enjoyed the view whilst listening to the resident busker playing classical tunes. This leather-trousered troubadour is like a wallflower: he always comes out to play on the pier on a sunny day.
I had a walking childhood and grew up on a south-westerly diet of pasties and mackerel. I consider myself something of a connoisseur of the pasty and from childhood days, when I never sat down, I still prefer to eat pasties walking down the road. However, on this occasion, it didn’t stop me ordering one for lunch.
“In 61 years, I have never eaten a better pasty, ” I told the lady who cooked them after lunch when she came to clear the plates. She told me that she only baked them on a Thursday and then in small numbers: the day in question she had only baked 8, perhaps because the height of the Season had now passed. I was lucky enough to get one of them. Everything about the pasty was perfect: the skirt beef; the thinly sliced vegetables; the sea-watery seasoning; and I particularly liked the shorter than normal pastry that seemed to have been bronzed by the sun.
It is quite possible that this was the best pasty in Falmouth that day. Perhaps in Cornwall too. Or anywhere in the world. It certainly seemed like it to me.
A perfect pasty at the Pier Café.
