As a poor grad student in the UK, I admit to surviving on cheap food like sausage rolls, jacket potatoes and pasties. Did you know there is a museum dedicated to that last “delicacy”? But it’s not in Cornwall as you’d expect…no, the world’s first Cornish Pasty Museum is in Mexico of all places. You’re probably thinking, “Uh, yeah I believe they eat this thing there called an empanada?” Even though it’s a similar dish (just like calzones and samosas…I’ll take World Cuisine for $200, Alex), the Hidalgo region is known specifically for their pastes, usually filled with peppers, chicken and pineapple, then topped off with a syrup or fruit drizzle to create a distinct sweetened flavor. The origins of the Cornish pasty in Mexico can be traced back to the British miners, who moved to this region in the early 1800s to rebuild the mining industry. They also introduced football, creating Mexico’s first team, Club de Futbol Pachuca. Football and beef pies, it doesn’t get more British, eh? Between the Cornish pump engines, the cemetery full of Cornish corpses and the houses made of natural stone and pitched roofs (just like in Cornwall) with Cornish flags flying in the breeze, it made sense to open up a pasty museum in the town of Real del Monte. Costing about 250,000 pesos (£11,440), the museum opened last March and includes a restaurant (of course), craft workshops, a children’s play area and an activity centre, where visitors can attempt to make their own pasties. There’s even a Pasty Festival, now in its fourth year! Never in a million years did I ever think I’d know so much about this savoury pie, but I have eaten my fair share, so it’s the least I can do, I guess. And if any of you people thought I was talking about dirty pasties this whole time, well, that’s your problem, not mine.
Pasty museum in the town of Real del Monte
