Festival season is drawing to a close and a few weeks ago I headed up to Kendal Calling (held at Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District) knowing I’d be greeted with good music, atmosphere and importantly craft ale and food!
Two stands immediately caught my eye as I entered the main arena – Pie Minister and Barnaby Sykes Pie Makers. I headed for Barnaby Sykes Pie Makers (according to their website – “The pie shop that moves – quality food provider for festivals, weddings, parties, fêtes, farmer’s markets and other events”) and I wasn’t surprised at the price £5.50 each, we were after all a captive audience and prices are always inflated for food, drinks, memorabillia etc at these type of Festivals.
The choice as you can see from the photos looked varied and even though the summer did decide to end and a deluge of rain came down the pies never reflected the soggy nature of everything else around! The staple of ‘Steak, Horseradish and Ale’ was complemented with ‘Chicken and Ham’, ‘Goats Cheese, Sweet Potato & Spinach’, ‘Steak & Chorizo’ and ‘Lamb with New Potatoes & Mint’.
These were provided with sides of creamy mash and gravy. Very nice!
So did the taste live up to the presentation? The simple answer is yes! I sampled both the
‘Steak, Horseradish and Ale’ and ‘Chicken and Ham’ (it has to be said, twice!), and actually they were both delicious – each made of thick golden shortcrust pastry with chunky fillings, with each element adding to the flavour. Even though this was a festival setting with of perhaps 20,000 people the pies were all freshly cooked with juicy and succulent ingredients.
Yes, As I previously mentioned I actually had 4 of their pies – so no other vendor got a look in this time – so Kendal Calling lived to up all but the weather (arrived to 30 degrees – left in a rain storm!)
Both pies a great 9.1
MH.
@barnabysykes #barnabysykespiemaker #lowtherdeerpark #barnabysykes #barnabysykespies #penrith #festivalfood #kendalcalling #pie #chickenandham #steak #horseradish #ale #thelakedistrict #britishpies #pieeaters #food #britishfood
