This isn’t an official pie review, one, because I’m not really sure that this should count as Shepherd’s Pie, and two, it was at a festival, so it may have been watered down.
Here’s a question, and I don’t know the answer because I’m NOT a pie expert: if there’s little to no crispiness in the potato top, if it’s just basically mashed potatoes, is it a “proper” Shepherd’s Pie? And if you can’t slice it, does it count as pie? Let me know what you think by taking the polls at the end of this post.
Anyways, I ordered the Shepherd’s Pie at Kells Irish Festival, a St. Patrick’s Day tradition. This was my first actual Shepherd’s Pie, but if this is what Shepherd’s Pie is, I think I’ve had it before. My Mom used to serve it, only it was upside down and it was called “hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes“.
Honestly, though, the Shepherd’s Pie was pretty good, but what bothers me is it was almost all mashed potatoes and gravy, with a hint of ground beef. They said there were carrots, onions and peas, but I didn’t taste any.
It was also a small serving and came in a TV dinner tray. If I want some mashed potatoes and gravy, I could go to KFC and get them for much cheaper. Granted, most KFCs don’t have Irish music and beer (although, I bet if there are any in Ireland, they do).
So, when you’re out drinking a Guinness and doing you’re best Conan O’Brien-style Irish jig this Wednesday, think twice before you purchase the $8 Shepherd’s Pie. But, don’t let this scare you away from the Irish Festival – ’tis a good time had by all! Also, this is a regular menu-item at Kells, so I’ll probably give the actual dish a try at a later date.
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Paul
/ March 16, 2010Yes, shepherd’s pie should have a golden “crust” on the top. And just because you can’t slice it, doesn’t mean it’s not pie. You can’t really have a slice of many savory pies- it would be hard to have a “slice” of chicken pot pie, for example.
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/ March 17, 2010Yeah… I don’t know. I mean, I just think you should be able to get some semblance of a slice out of it. Yes, sometimes savory pies are hard to “slice” per se, but you can at least attempt slicing it. Let’s get away from pie for a second here: example, sometimes Lasagna is really sloppy and hardly resembles a slice – but you’d still call it a slice. Where as, if you had a dish of potatoes, you’d probably call it a scoop.
The thing is, the “pie” at Kells was scoopable and not sliceable – know what I mean?