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pie reviews

Cozens of Usk, lamb oggy, £1.10

[lamb oggys] "Oggy oggy oggy, oi oi oi". At least that's what Catherine Zeta Jones said at the Oscars, and quite frankly we wouldn't want to argue with her. Or meet her down an alley on a dark night.

So when we spotted these in a bakery in Usk, Wales, it was only right and proper that pie-man found out what the hell she was on about.

Turns out she was referring to a kind of loosely packaged pasty, with ventilation holes to let the lamb and potato ooze out. Or perhaps to breathe while the oggy hibernates. Which is a cute idea, but would probably result in a rather mouldy pasty.

Anyway, these were pretty good. The lamb was minced rather than chunky, and there was a distinct hint of mint. You wouldn't necessarily want to take one out in a paper bag for your lunch as it would fall to pieces, so the traditional pasty wins out on the grounds of structural integrity.

With that in mind, it's perhaps not worth travelling 350 miles for, as the petrol costs make an already rather expensive pastry product verge on the exorbitant. But the oggy as a pie cousin has real potential - we'll be keeping an eye on the valleys to see how it develops.

Oi.

Score: 6.9 out of 10