20: West Country Hospitality

Very short review, because I’m travelling. It being the season, I’m right across the other side of the UK, in lovely Bristol. A town I lived in for many years, and I can never visit without wondering about the life of a parallel universe version of me who stayed might have been. Bristol, has changed a lot, and so have I.

Because it’s Christmas, and we have family here, we’re visiting with relatives. And because we’re visiting we were served tea, and because it’s Christmas, there were mince pies. They were even vegan.

Lottie Shaw”s the Authentic taste of Christmas deep filled seriously good mince pies, goes the rather wordy olde world styled strap line, on the rather cute box.

The pie is very pretty too. Looks a little hand made with a broad party star top over a fairly wide filled tart, sprinkled with the usual sugar powder. The vegan pastry was particularly convincing, the pie filling was rich and rather fruity, but if I’m honest, and the awkwardness of being a house guest yet staying true to my reviewers vocation is something that didn’t really occur to me when I started out on this silly jaunt, this one was perhaps a little ordinary.

It was certainly better than the vegan chilli dog I ended up having for dinner at Frankie and Benny”s later on though. ‘Tis the season, did I mention that already?