The (still-)United Kingdom would probably win if there were a contest for amusing names for various foods. Yes, funny stuff elsewhere, Italy's priest-strangler pasta and Portuguese nuns' signs pastries, for instance. But you have to love a culture that can disduss spotted dick with a straight face.
Thus Alastair Nisbet's offering of baby forfar bridies is not appealing to pedophilia. Forfar bridies are a traditional Scottish hand pie, as we now often say. They're on the appetizer menu at the Scottish Arms, and definitely worth exploring.
I do think that one's study Scottish Aunt May wouldn't have used puff pastry for hers, but the pastry is light enough and thin enough to offset a filling that's about as study as Aunt May. It keeps them from being stodgy. And the filling is a reminder of just how delicious some of that food from the British Isles can be, despite the awful reputation it had until pretty recently. It's ground beef seasoned with a bit of carrot and onion, salt and plenty of black pepper.
The bridies are triangles here rather than the traditional horseshoe shape, but that leaves plenty of crispy corners to enjoy, with or without dipping them in the British condiment HP Sauce. HP sauce is brown, almost as thick as ketchup, with a fruity, sharpish edge, more exotic in its spicing and the tamarind in its ingredient list than one might expect. Worth exploring.
Three to a serving, a nice nibble with a pint while the three of you wait for the rest of the meal or the start of the footy.
Scottish Arms
8 S. Sarah St.
314-535-0551