UK: Newman Arms

Good news!  T gave me a copy of all her photos from Europe.  Like me, if she's not already on the Tumblr "Pictures of Asians Taking Pictures of Food", she really should be.  Thanks to T, I'm going to be able to post about some of the meals we had before my camera was stolen in Paris. 

So without further ado, Newman Arms!

My sister and AF are rabid fans of BBC's Sherlock, so they were ecstatic to find out that Sherlock was going to be filming while we were in London.  The day of the scheduled filming, they talked T and I into standing outside in the cold along with dozens of other crazy fangirls, waiting for the film crew to arrive.  After about an hour, T and I were freezing, hungry, and more than ready to give up.

My sister and AF were gracious enough to let us take a lunch break at Newman Arms.  T's friend recommended it as a good place to try traditional English pies.  Newman Arms consists of a pub downstairs and a pie room upstairs.  We followed the sign for the pie room into a small walkway and almost missed the door:

We had to backtrack to find it.

The menu at Newman Arms is written on the wall.  There's one column for traditional pies, one for suet puddings, and one for desserts.

The traditional pie looks like this:

It comes with a big puffy, flaky pastry over stewed filling:

We tried two kinds of pie.  We took the traditional route and ordered the steak and kidney pie, then we tried something new and ordered one of the daily specials, beef with mushroom and horseradish.

We had no idea what a suet pudding was, so of course we had to get one.  We went with the lamb and rosemary one:

A suet pudding is basically a steamed pastry filled with meat.  The pastry crust is is made with suet, which can be either beef or mutton fat.  Drown it in some gravy and it's ready to go.

My favorite was the steak and kidney pie, though the lamb suet pudding wasn't bad.  The beef and mushroom pie could have used a bit more horseradish.  English pies are good, but I can't imagine myself ever craving one.

After lunch, we returned back to 221B Baker Street just in time to catch Sherlock and Watson run out to call a cab.  And do it over and over again.  When Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman finally walked off the set, we decided to head out ourselves.

But right before we got to the end of the street, T noticed that there was a bunch of paparazzi and fangirls huddled outside a hotel.  Based on T's hunch, we stood around to wait too and hit the jackpot when Benedict Cumberbatch walked outside in his street clothes a short while later to get into his sexy black Jaguar.

Even T and I got caught up in the excitement.  Benedict Cumberbatch was just so COOL and so...so...CLOSE to us.  Holy moly.  I had some fabulous creeper shots on my camera.

But those photos are long gone now.

I HATE YOU, UNKNOWN PARISIAN THIEF!


Newman Arms
23 Rathbone St
London, Greater London W1T 1NG, United Kingdom
+44 20 7636 1127
http://newmanarms.co.uk/