Eel Pie and Mash

The first time I tried eel was down The Cut, by the Young Vic.  I had gone to see Trevor Nunn's  
Timon of Athens, so that is a long time ago.  I had, I think, jellied eels, in a white-tiled eel pie shop.  I went to look for it last week but it is not there now.

 
My next eel was at Lou Farrow's Snack Bar and Take Away; Traditional Pie and Mash,  down the Blue, off Blue Anchor Lane, just past the railway bridge, in Bermondsey.  It is a cafe.  I went in and asked for eel pie and mash and the man at the counter said something I didn't understand.  He said it again, I still didn't understand.  He asked again so I said 'yes'.  He gave me a pie, some mashed potato a bowl of green liquid with chunks of something interesting in it, and another bowl of more green liquid.  The eels were in the first bowl.  They were, well, interesting.  The green liquid was like a thick green soup.  It turned out he was asking me if I wanted extra 'liquor'; the green soup.   Till last week I thought it was pea soup but it isn't.

 Last week I went to Manze's Noted Eel & Pie House which is on Tower Bridge Road.  I got beef pie, very nice, stewed eels, soft and succulent, on the same plate, with mashed potato, and, separately, more of the mysterious green soup stuff.  This time as I understood what the woman serving was saying, I asked her what was in it, and it turned out to be parsley.    It was pretty good.  There is another Manze Eel Pie House in Peckham which I will try next time I am up that way.  The shop was full of locals, eating at long wooden tables, with a few Japanese tourists, probably looking for authentic London grub, like me.
The original shop was established in 1902, there is an internet site, and they say they will deliver throughout the UK, to other pie shops.

 

After that I walked back to the market at The Blue and found the fishmonger, who was selling jellied eels.  They were in salt jelly, which was nice, but the eels were a bit rubbery.  I need to experiment further with these.  The fishmonger told me that these days the eels don't come from the Thames but all the way from Ireland; Mick's Eels.  The lion sculpture in the market was paid for by local shop keepers and may, or may not, be the Milwall Lion.

According to Wikipedia there still about 80 eel pie and mash shops around the east end of London so I still have more investigating to do.  One, Goddards, was previously on Deptford High Street and  is now behind Greenwich market.  Eel Pie Island, far away up the river near Hampton Court, is called that because Londoners from the East End went there on days out and wanted their traditional  food.

Lion sculpture in The blue