Hat Yai train of thought - British Rail Pork Pies

So it was 5 years ago on the Hat Yai Bangkok sleeper.  I was working in Hat Yai and commuting once a month to Bangkok and the trains could not have been more perfect.  I could walk out of my mates bar at 5:45 and be at the station a minute later,  thence onto the train, beer in hand and en route to Bangkok.  

2nd class sleeper, bottom bunk is what I love.  It's like your own den from when you were a kid and you have light, hangers and a beautiful view out of the window... when it's light.  I once had a not too beautiful view of a kid throwing a brick at the train and it cracking my window, but that kind of wanton vandalism is very rare in Thailand.  The top bunk sways about too much and is wider so I try and stay off them.

It's great scenery from the train, but in Thailand it gets dark  before 7pm most of the year so this soon ended.  What to do with the other 12 hours of the trip?  Well, there was the buffet cart and the odd entrepreneur jumping on the train with a bucket (an actual bucket) full of ice and cold beers.  The buffet cart had us yearning for the days of old in england when at least you could get a pork pie... even though it was a joke one... at least it was a pork pie.

Train fare in Thailand consists of very old and salty bags of indiscernible snacks.  The salt I assume (as a cook... of sorts) is to preserve it and give it a shelf live of 6 months or more.  Still, as on the night bus stops, we eat it.

The toilet is the noisiest part of the train with just a hole at the bottom of it through which you can see the track   .You really don't want to be walking along train tracks in Thailand, not just because you may get run over, there is a serious chance of walking in "waste"  in various stages of decomposition.

Of course, nobody can think of trains without reference to the British Rail Pork Pie and on the Hat yai Bangkok "Special" it was no different..  The butt of many a joke, but why was it so hard?  Why was it designed to protect the pork from the eater?  maybe there was something in it they were guarding, bullion shipments perhaps, whoever would find them in the casing of a pie.

Never put me off buying them though as it was always my favourite pie, even when it was made to this standard. I prefer to see what's in them, by that, I mean chopped pork not minced left over pig that many use.  I so worry about this, that when I do use pork mince, I buy the meat I want and mince it... no ears, tails, squeak.... just pork.  Variety of cuts, but pork none the less.  The pastry stock I made last week would not have been porkier if Porky the Pig himself had fallen in and simmered for the day.

Duang also did some great lattice work on the Pork and Apple Pie and my new camera at the end of the month will start to record these.