I've been meaning to post this for a while, but a deli near me has invented possibly the best thing since sliced bread. Just a shame about the dreadfull writing.
The piewich .
by Virginia Brisgewater.
Printed in The Argus, 27th July 2004.
IT SOUNDS like a health food fan’s nightmare. But the piewich – a pie of your choice between two pieces of bread and stuck together with sauce – is becoming a lunchtime legend.
The hefty snack is the invention of chef Paul Hirchwood, owner of New England Deli in New England Road, Brighton.
It is a step up from the doorstep sandwich and is proving a hit with workers looking for some extra oomph after a hard morning.
Paul, 31, from Hove said: “If you buy a pie, you can’t eat it with anything unless you are sitting down.
“But if you put it between two bits of bread it’s much easier to hold and you can have sauce, salt and pepper – anything you like really and it won’t fall out everywhere.”
The invention comes from his early days as a chef when, after spending all day working with food, he would grab any-thing that was left and shove it between two bits of bread.
He said: “I’m an avid fan. The piewich is more popular during the winter because it’s hot, filling and good for keeping you warm, especially for people working outdoors.” Piewich-eater Gloria Temple, 49, who works across the road in Circus Parade, said: “This is the first time I’ve had one.
“It’s chicken and mushroom and certainly different but it’s actually really nice.
“The pie heats the bread up and warm bread is lovely.
“It’s a much easier way to eat a pie and I’ll definitely be rec-ommending it to my friends.” Kirsten Branum-Winters, 20, was hot on Gloria’s heels to order one.
She said: “I had never heard of it before so I thought I’d try it because it sounded unusual.” Paul, who serves up a wide selection of sandwiches as well as fresh coffee, smoothies and breakfasts, opened the New England Deli two years ago.
It has been so successful he has opened another outlet in Boundary Road.
THE sandwich is believed to have been invented by John Montagu, the fourth Earl Of Sandwich.
The story goes that the snack was first eaten in London dur-ing the wee hours of a night of gambling in 1762.
The 18th Century nobleman was enjoying a game of cards so much that he refused to leave the gambling table to eat.
He ordered a waiter to bring him a slice of salt beef and put it between two pieces of bread, so inventing the sandwich.
The meat was put on slices of bread to save his fingers getting greasy during his game.
Montagu was considered one of the most immoral men of his time with gambling being one of his lesser vices.
Not only was he a member of a group of Satan worshippers called The Friars of St Francis of Wycombe – also known as The Hell Fire Club – but he boasted he specialised in seduc-ing virgins.
Montagu was the executive officer of the club and was described as being “as mischie-vous as a monkey and as lecherous as a goat”.
He was also labelled “the most universally disliked man in England”.
― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)