Fake Pies

It was a very long drive, but we went to meet friends for lunch in Dundee. They live somewhere quite remote, so even though Dundee isn't particularly near for them, it's probably the closest urban centre of any reasonable size. For us it was a much longer trip.

I forget the name of the restaurant they selected, but it wasn't easy to find: through an archway to a nondescript courtyard behind a main street, the restaurant up a metal staircase and not clearly identifiable from any distance. They must be confident about relying on word of mouth for customers. There won't be much in the way of passing trade in that location. It seemed like a nice place though, so perhaps the low-key presence works for them.

The special for the day was some kind of steak and ale pie. It sounded nice from the description.
I asked the waitress:-
Is this served in a ceramic dish with pastry over the top?
Yes.
Okay, not a proper pie then, so I won't have that.

It was an entirely friendly exchange, and I told the waitress it should be considered as feedback.
Our daughter, apparently with no strong views on whether a genuine pie should be entirely encased in pastry or not, ordered the pie.

Later, out of a table of 6 people, only Trevor agreed with me that a bowl of stew with a piece of pastry nearby - not even in contact with the filling - shouldn't be considered to be a genuine pie. Everyone agreed that the waitress seemed bemused to have been asked. Apparently restaurants have been getting away with this for so long now that it's considered to be normal and acceptable. In fact it's no better than school dinners, where a ladle full of stew was served with a square of puff pastry cut from a separate tray. Surely no one has fond nostalgic memories of that?
It's obviously long overdue to begin the fight back against fake pies.

Unless you make your own, shop at a quality local butcher, or have a source for pies produced by smaller manufacturers with high standards, it's probably possible to live a life without ever eating a decent meat pie - and never realise what you're missing. Supermarket pies are an inadequate substitute, most comprising a pastry shell filled with (to borrow a title from Frank Zappa) lumpy gravy of dubious composition. Unless you've experienced the real thing, you may not realise that better versions are available.

So, I'm announcing the formation of the Campaign for Real Pies: CAMRP.
Campaign song: 'Fake, em, Pies', by The National. (I'm sure that The National will be happy to re-record one of their best known songs for such a worthy cause.)

There are obviously worse problems affecting the world at this time in history. 
Western politics is in crisis. Big business is continuing to get away with everything. Virgin Media have yet to be denounced from on high before the nation for their crimes.

But all I'm doing here is raising the issue, and hoping that word spreads, and awareness is raised. If everybody stops ordering fake pies (faux pies? ersatz pies?) in restaurants, perhaps the message will get through eventually, and there will be small improvements somewhere.
Does anyone agree? Is it worth mentioning on your favoured social media platform?
Though mentioning it in an actual conversation works too. Just start a ripple, and perhaps in time restaurants will be getting outed and shamed for being amongst the few remaining who are still trying to get away with serving bogus pies, and it will become a small victory for anyone opposed to cutting too many corners purely in the pursuit of profit.

We're slightly miffed as hell, and we're not going to take it any more!

Postscript - late-ish March, 2017
I see that Mary Berry has been lambasted on Twitter for cooking a pie without a pastry base on her tv show. The general consensus was: 'that's not a pie, that's just a casserole with a lid'.
The chairman of The British Pie Awards weighed in with the definitive ruling:-

The annual British Pie Awards provides the following definition: "A pie is a filling totally and wholly encased in pastry."

Awards chairman Matthew O'Callaghan said Berry's hearty potato, leek and cheese pie, which she demonstrated on her BBC One show Mary Berry Everyday, did not qualify.

"That's not a pie," he said. "It's just a casserole with a bit of pastry on top.

"We want a top and a bottom. Lattice, open top, only a top - they're not allowed at the British Pie Awards."

It's nice to feel vindicated, and discover that so many right-thinking people share my views on this subject. Hopefully restaurants will take note, and desist from their lazy habits.