Market pasties fit for a (Greek) king

N8N’s roving reporter Ciaran Warner gets his teeth into a superb Cornish pastie at last month’s market.

In a postscript to a piece for the Gordonton Country Market News, he offered the following scientific analysis:

“Allow me to describe the experience of biting into one of these pasties.

Your teeth penetrate the outer crust, like miners delving into delicious ore.

Once through the top strata, they find themselves immersed in a golden antechamber of soft vegetables, tender meat, and rich-tasting herbs.

Like Odysseus, in the land of the lotus-eaters, they are in danger of tarrying too long, and becoming enraptured by the pleasure they have found.

As they reach the core, your teeth undergo a transcendent enlightenment, not unlike the apes from the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey, they are inspired to establish a new civilization within the world of the pasty – a glorious cave kingdom, ruled justly, and with a largeness of spirit unmatched by any civilization that has come before it.”

Strong words indeed.  N8N’s Annette Taylor is determined to get her hands on one of the tasty treats herself this coming Saturday.  In case you missed it, here is the rest of Ciaran’s report:

AS THE EARLY morning fog clears over the Gordonton Country Market, the enticing scent of Neil and Melanie MacArthur’s Cornish pasties wafts forth, drawing idle wanderers to the stall.

It is easy to see how the small business of Cornish Pasties (NZ) Ltd has done so well from such humble beginnings.

“We’ve been doing this for about five years now,” says Neil. “We started off with just a small bakery out the back of our section, and eventually the operation grew too big and we bought a bakery in Cambridge. We’ve been doing farmers markets like this one for a while now.”

And it seems that ever since then, it has been onwards and upwards for Neil and Melanie.

“We wanted to take it a step further, it took us a year but we eventually got our license and are selling them everywhere. We have support from Foodstuffs now, and we’re selling them in 26 supermarkets across the country, from Auckland to Rotorua, and locally at the Rototuna New World. We aim to sell around 1500 a week.”

Neil says that markets like the Gordonton Country Market are ideal for making sales like these.

“I like Gordonton. We’ve been at the market since its inception, and it’s usually pretty good. There’s only been one day of bad weather, it’s been great every other time. I can see this being a really good market, especially as time goes on.”

And as for the pastries themselves? Words cannot express. The pastry, soft and flaky, melts in one’s mouth, giving way to the tasty interior of soft vegetables, tender meat, and rich-tasting herbs within.

Highly recommended.