Patty's A Belle

The rather jaundiced looking pasty pictured was tonight's supper for your humble narrator, and rather fine it was, too. I was rummaging around in the freezer cabinet of our little corner shop for inspiration for a quick bite - we are so fortunate to still have one of these places - and found a selection of Caribbean curry patties, including the above example. Originally developed from the Cornish pasty which arrived in the Caribbean islands with settlers from the UK, the patty took on a more Afro-Caribbean flavour with the addition of spices and chillis, whilst retaining the form of the traditional pasty. In the twentieth century, the curry patty was brought to England by settlers from the islands. It was a part of the food landscape of my growing up in The Green [blog posts passim], having eaten many of them late at night from the little Jamaican takeaway and gambling den on the Dudley Road, after a skinful and maybe a visit to the local shebeen [blog posts also passim] at the top of my street. I have to say that tonight's patty was a welcome taste from the past, and I will be buying more of them in the future: what I will be doing, however, is to give them a light egg-wash, just to add a little extra to the crust. A proper snack, methinks...