WAGS 02.02 2022: All The Twos, or To The Foothills of Zambujo and Back.

 

I know that you are all eagerly waiting to read about last Wednesday´s walk but before I get on to that, let me have a few more words about pies, and Scotch Pies in particular. Those of you who read last week´s blog immediately it came out may have missed the two musical items that Paul added later. One of them, entitled “Scotch Pie” and mostly sung in dialect, may not be to everyone´s taste, musical taste that is; but all in all, these late additions make it a blog well-worth revisiting. Do look at it again, for Pete´s  (I mean for Paul´s) sake.

Paul, in his comments, inter alia, sang the praises of Cornish Pasties versus the Forfar Bridie and also referred us to a website calling itself Taste Atlas which has a list of 143 savoury pies from all round the world, and he gleefully pointed out that the Scotch Pie didn´t appear in the list at all. True enough; it doesn´t. I had attributed this woeful omission purely to anti-Scottish English chauvinism but then I noticed that their list included something called the Musselburgh Pie, so concluded that they are just plain ignorant, not anti-Scots.

Now I had never heard of this pie although I know Musselburgh quite well, it being just a few miles east of Edinburgh. Musselburgh, no doubt named, like Mexilhoeira, after the plentiful shellfish in its nearby waters, does have a lot going for it. It was founded by the Romans first century AD, has a Roman bridge, like Silves, still in use for pedestrians, has an ancient golf course, a race course, and one of the longest high streets in Scotland. And every year, it is home to what is claimed to be the world´s oldest continuing sporting competition, the Musselburgh Silver Arrow archery competition, dating from 1603.

But its pie does sound rather rich for every day consumption, consisting as it does of mussels or oysters, each wrapped in streaky bacon, and each of those pieces in turn wrapped in thin rolls of beefsteak before being baked in a two-crust pie.

However, I do have some doubts as to the afore-mentioned Taste Atlas´s authority on the matter of pies. Many of the items on its pie list are quiches, or stuffed breads or dishes with pastry lids which scarcely count as pies at all. It has some strange names of pies too., Katt Pie (don´t ask), Shapkat (ditto), and even one called Cholera ( from Switzerland).

It is also a bit muddled in its thinking about the venerable Melton Mowbray Pie, including it both in its list of the top 10 British Savoury Pies (no argument with that) and in its list of the 4 worst-rated British Savoury pies as well. Not a pie lover´s Bible, I would say.

For myself, I prefer to be guided by the magazine Scottish Field (https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/food-and-drink-2/the-scotch-pie-is-the-most-popular-pie-in-the-land/) which refers to a survey done by an organisation called Eat Great Meat who, interestingly, are a South Yorkshire concern. EGM´s research is into the number of Google searches for pies over the period of one year and what they found was :-.

Scotch Pie – 385,497 yearly searches
Vegan Pie – 196,521 yearly searches
Vegetarian Cottage Pie – 194,502 yearly searches
Cornish Pasty – 192,240 yearly searches
Banoffee Pie – 140,818 yearly searches
Mince Pie – 137,771 yearly searches
Apple Pie – 137,248 yearly searches
Vegan Cottage Pie – 99,362 yearly searches
Game Pie – 97,765 yearly searches
Steak Pie – 96,498 yearly searches

Not quite sure what the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan Cottage Pie is but, even so, Scotch Pie comes out a clear winner.

Cooking members of the WhatsApp gourmet sub-group may like to try out the following recipe for the delicacy

https://travelinginmykitchen.com/2022/01/03/make-your-own-scotch-pies/

which seems to my unpractised eye to be a well-written even although it´s by an American , and those who don´t or can´t cook may instead like to work out what this Dundee Scots tongue twister means:-

“Gie iz twa bridies, a plen ane an an ingin ane an aa.”

Well, that pie digression turned out to be rather longer than I had at first intended, so I had better avoid talking about the weekend´s Rugby International results, tempting and enjoyable though that would be, and get on with describing the walk.

We started slightly earlier than usual, at 9.30 am. Janet had called off and the Whittles didn´t join us at all, Chris being still in thrall to a severe bug (get well soon, Chris); but Ingrid graced us with a reappearance and our numbers were further augmented by newcomer Peter, a friend of Yves.

The Starters: Geraldine, Hazel, Ingrid, Dina, Maria, Peter (with coffee), Yves (on the phone to his car dealer), JohnH, Myriam (hiding in the shadows, and Rod.

We followed well-known paths but it was sad to see that the once shady track through the valley leading up into the hills is shady no more, it too having been denuded of trees by the loggers.

In the present weather, the walking is not too unpleasant but whether it will be at all enjoyable in the summer months later this year is to be doubted. Our breakfast walks there may have to be discontinued.

Where there was shade, we paused.

At about 10.30, phone contact was established with Susanna at Café Norinha and orders for lunch were placed.

The walk plan was to revisit the trig point on Zambujo, which we had scaled on the 28^th of April last year but, when we reached the base of Zambujo, the Leader put it to the vote whether to climb to the top or not. There were some very vociferous and rebellious “Noes” led by Hazel in response to the proposal and only a couple of rather subdued “Ayes,”  along with some determined sitting-on-the~-fence- type Abstentions. So Zambujo was abandoned and Maria could not repeat her trig point salute of last year.

Instead we circled round a bit to look at the distant Arade barragem before turning for home.

Three of the rebels, with the white dot of the Zambujo trig just visible behind them.

This homeward route took us past the spot where in April 2021 we had come across a team of forestry workers with a truck load of fir saplings for replanting.

April 2021

April 2021

A survivor, February 2022

Probably due to the considerable lack of rain in the intervening months, there was very little sign that their replanting efforts had been successful, only a few saplings still being visible.

Geraldine and Maria do stretching exercises

The trek back to base passed without little incident of note, save that at one stage Yves stopped us dead in our tracks with a totally out-of-the-blue question. Why he asked that particular question at that particular time, goodness alone knows.

Yves asks his question

WARNING. Those of a tender disposition may want to skip the next sentence. 

The question was something like “Who was it who said about which politician that he was so dumb that he can´t fart and chew gum at the same time ?”

None of us was able to provide an answer. Google answer comes at the end of this blog

The Track and the Statistics (or vice versa)

The previous visit to Zambujo had involved a walk of 10.77 kms and a climb of 365 metres. This Wednesday´s track, in comparison, was a bit longer but somehow the Leader had managed to reduce the climbing.

We got back to Pescadores at about 12.15 where Paul was waiting for us and we had some light refreshments while the ladies chatted.

Maria then made a charming little speech and presented Dona Fernanda with a framed photograph in appreciation of her special breakfasts for  the APAPS group.

This was the photograph, from 29^th September 2021.

Rod and Ingrid then went their separate ways while the remaining 8 of us moved on to Café Norinha for the lunch. For once, no prato de dia was available but the à la carte menu provided enough variety to satisfy us all.

This week it was Maria´s turn to get served first

Carapau, I believe.

Hazel´s choice was lulas:

The rest had variously frango grelhado, dourada or carne mista, plus rice pud or fruta de salada (or is that the other way round?)

And to close, the translation of that Scottish tongue twister:-

“Gie iz twa bridies, a plen ane an an ingin ane an aa.”

"Give me two bridies, a plain one, and an onion one as well."

Dundonian Scots is hard to comprehend but an easier tongue twister from a wee bit further south is

"The Leith Police dismisseth us."

Try saying that after you´ve had a dram a or two.

And the answer to Yves´ question, according to Google, is that it was Lyndon B. Johnston (who was not especially renowned for his refinement) who said this about Gerald Ford.

"Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time."

Sorry about that but we have to be accurate in these blogs.

Incidentally, that walk was on 2/2/22. The next date with all the twos will be 22/2/22, only a couple of weeks away and, if you can stay awake until a little before midnight then , make a  note of the moment at 22.22 pm on2/2/22. Apparently, the next concatenation of such times and dates is not until 3.33 am on 3/3/33, 3033 that is.

And to close, finally, a swinging song about living trees which also has a verse about cooking (beans , not pies)

h