But having finally tried some a few years ago and found that it's not actually as bad as I thought, I started following the progress of the Pie and Mash Club.
The PMC are a group of individuals who come together every so often for some p&m on a Friday lunchtime at a pre-arranged venue.(left) Please, can I have some more? Nick polishes off some eels
It's mainly a social occasion but there is a healthy competitive element to it too.
As the venue for the latest outing of the club was my local shop, Duncan's on Green Street, I'd arranged to work at home for the day so I could attend.
On my arrival a couple of members were already present and tucking in - I was interested to see that they were just having pies, no mash. Presumably the mash fills you up too quickly?
Having no wish to take on these experienced trenchers, I went for double pie, double mash and liquor.
Other members of the club then joined us including Nick who organises the fixture list, keeps score and writes up the days events.
Pie shop owner Joan was bemused by all the frenzied activity - normally the shop never gets too busy except on West Ham matchdays when the queue stretches down the street.
I'm obviously rather biased but this shop does produce the best pie and mash I've had from my travels across London. There are other more well-known shops, such as Manze's and Goddard's, but for my money they don't come any near as good. The fact that these others are from south of the river has, of course, nothing to do with it.
There is a scoring system for the food eaten - 4 points per pie, 4 per portion of eels, 3 per portion of mash and 1 per portion of liquor. David Arkell was setting quite a pace today and eventually went on to score 56 points. Joan commented she'd not seen anyone eat so much - and in less than an hour too!
At the last count Nick Evans was leading the pack for the season - mainly by way of attending all the events - whilst David Arkell was second.(right) Len Wilcox faces up to David Arkell
And currently in third place was Len Wilcox who told me he visited Feethams a few times and as a West Ham fan he even remembers our league cup game at Upton Park back in 1975. I remember listening to the progress of this on the radio - we lost lost 3-0 after a goal-less first half if I remember correctly.
Len is keen to get some points on the board and the tension between him and David Arkell hots up and the taunts about small pies start to hit home - they're like two bull elephant seals sizing each other up. But Arkell is out of sight today and as I leave for home Len is vainly trying to catch up.
The future of many pie and mash shops are in the balance - as with many pubs in the area some have closed as their traditional east-end clientele are either dying off or have moved to Essex. Joan was interviewed in an interesting article here where she describes the problems the shop faces.
But there are a few encouraging signs - a new pie shop opened up a mile or so away in Plaistow recently and my other local shop, Robins, have opened a new outlet in Wanstead. In an area where every other shop seems to be a fried chicken franchise, it's nice to see all is not lost.
Update: Nick has now written his report on this tie and interesting to see that Len managed to polish off eight pies but failed to match David Arkell by just a solitary point.
