‘I had high hopes for my Wigan kebab – what could possibly go wrong’

It was a long time ago that I was first introduced to the concept of a ‘smack barm pey wet’ by my university housemate.

For those unfamiliar with the strangely sounding snack, it’s basically a potato scallop with pea juice drizzled over it and placed inside a barmcake – call it what you will.

Loved by Wiganers I’m yet to try the delicacy, partly because I always feared it was a wind up and I’d be laughed out of the chippy for asking for such a thing.

But there’s another unusual scran enjoyed just as much in these parts and that’s a Wigan Kebab.

Read more:Seaside town is said to have the best fish and chips in the world so we gave them a try

It wasn’t on the menu at Wigan’s Seven Seas Fish and Chip Restaurant, but I didn’t get a bemused look when I asked for a barmcake with a meat and potato pie inside. It was obvious I was far from the first to ask for such a thing.

Wigan's Seven Seas Fish and Chip Restaurant
Wigan’s Seven Seas Fish and Chip Restaurant
(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)

I had high hopes for the popular northern scran. I love pies, especially the Holland’s ones sold here, and I like barms, so as a pretty substantial snack, what could possibly go wrong.

I did however find it a bit disappointing. Partly because I’d been so enthusiastic about my son and I trying our first one, but overall, it just tasted a bit meh.

I’m not sure if I needed some sauce on it to give it a bit of oomph, perhaps some gravy to dunk it in, but it was bland and the pastry and bread together meant I was spitting feathers. The boy enjoyed his, but he’s not particularly fussy and wouldn’t have had sauce anyway.

Despite Wiganers being known as the ‘pie eaters’, the term actually stems from the 1926 General Strike when miners were starved back to work before their counterparts in surrounding towns and were forced to eat ‘humble pie’.

The Wigan Kebab
The Wigan Kebab
(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)

But since then, the townsfolk have embraced them so much, they’ve become the real pie eaters, not just metaphorical ones.

And it’s the perils of eating them on the go, with hot fillings spilling out, that is said to have created the Wigan Kebab delicacy by slapping it inside a barm for a hot portable lunch.

I’m not criticising Seven Seas, which is in fact one of Three Best Rated’s fish and chip shops in Wigan, and I’d be the last person to dis our Accrington-made Holland’s Pie.

I just know that next time I’ll be wanting something to make my kebab a bit mushier. Heck, I might even sample some pey wet!

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