Last week, I was lucky enough to be treated to.. well.. a treat! Fry’s Vegetarian in collaboration with FGV PR graciously hosted a taster evening for their brand new curry pies about to launch in the UK market. And you guys, seriously now, you’re in for an amazing treat!!!
If you don’t know the distribution story of how the family-owned Fry’s in South Africa is now available in the UK, it’s by run by a father-daughter team Lisa & Patrick (actually, everyone involved with Fry’s are a family business– they don’t sell out to the fat cats!), it’s quite interesting. In a new town without a job in 1997, Lisa set up a health food shop, ordered this new Fry’s product in and was a runaway success! Only probably was that the distribution company did a runner and the customers wanted more! The UK was Fry’s-less until a well timed serendipitous meeting with the owner Wally Fry secured Lisa & Pat the distro deal we take for granted and is the sole distributor in the UK and Ireland.
Their ethical rating is very high and so like I said, the big stores in the UK just can’t prove themselves good enough to carry them. Our health food shops get our love! You can also start finding them in some corner shops like Budgens and Nisa. None of those around? Get them straight from http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk #whenveggiesruletheworld
Their aim is to cover all corners in the “free-from” market as, let’s face it, its a less scarier word than “vegan”. What I didn’t know was that they are also NUT FREE. @.@ (Oh AND no hydrogenated fats, artificial colours or preservatives!)
Extra cool things:
-Fry’s aim is to have easy meat replacements
-Sustainable products
-Top of the Ethical Consumer vegetarian food list
-Workers are well paid
Ok enough shop talk, time for food talk!
You guys, yum. Yum yum yum!!! Gently protected by flaky pastry, a nice thick hearty creamy curry sauce waits for you inside with its friends peas, potatoes, onions, and “beef”. Extremely tasty comfort food which is what I’m all about. We tasted mini ones, so I can’t imagine the danger I’ll be in when I can’t stop eating whole pies. (I couldn’t-and won’t- even admit how many mini pies I had actually sampled out of shame.)
They pies were also accompanied by a wonderful mayo-y cabbage & celeriac slaw as well as a light herby quinoa salad with the raw crunch of red peppers and onion all made by our pals Diana and Adrian from Vegan Peasant catering. These fresh unconventional salads were the perfect pairing with the pies- along with pies other best friend- beer! We had the organic Daas Witte, a Belgian wheat beer. MMMmmmmm pie and beer….
The curry pies should be hitting the market really soon (see box on the left- I can’t wait!!!!!), but until then try Fry’s other range of pies and all the other meat-free goodies! I’ve been using them a lot for my non-veggie friends, they have no idea. Which is perfect as that ties into the easy meat replacement! Grab a box, put it in the oven, boom- done. There are also lots of recipes on their website for you to try! Happy eating everyone!
Ronin Dining 
I love Frys’s pepper steak style pie. Unfortunately they use palm oil in the pastry and recently went back to using palm oil in all their products without notifying customers. They claim to have found a sustainable source, but they don’t have much information about it at the moment.