Starbuck's Pies

[liuzhou]

My flabber is utterly gasted. I passed by the nearest branch of Starbuck's today here in China and spotted this sign littering the sidewalk.

 

 

I had no idea. I don't want an idea. I knew Starbuck's did nasty cakes, but pies? Tell me it isn't true.

I note, also that the Chinese for the Shepherd's Pie reads 牛肉, which is beef! Bloody strange shepherds. If it's beef, it's cottage pie. The clue is in the name. But then, I'm probably one of the only 6 people in the city who would know what a shepherd was never mind his pie! Even pies are a bit of an alien concept too far for most people here.

Has anyone here ever eaten one of these things? Confused shepherds looking after cattle? And what about the roast chicken and mushroom pie? When I make chicken pies, the chicken is never roasted. Hmmm. Are the mushrooms roasted, too? Is the pie roasted?

More information urgently required! Just so that I can sleep at night.

Edited March 10, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Tri2Cook]

I would say roughly 98.647% of people that I know of call cottage pie shepherd's pie. I have a tendency to do it myself if I don't stop to think about it just because that's what I grew up with. So it's a battle I don't wage or even think about. When you wage that battle, people say "huh, interesting... so do you want some of this shepherd's pie or not?" They don't care about the food lesson. They know it as shepherd's pie, have never heard of cottage pie and will continue to call it shepherd's pie. And if you put it on your restaurant menu or special board as cottage pie, your servers will hate you because then they have to answer "What's cottage pie?" a thousand times that day. When a menu or person says shepherd's pie, I assume it will be beef unless told otherwise and eat it with just as much happiness as I would if they'd called it cottage pie.

[Paul Fink]

So I google some. In the US Starbucks is selling "Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie" with TURKEY.

 

I agree with @Tri2Cook Most folks around here think shepherd's pie is mash potatoes & hamburger.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Paul Fink (log)

[liuzhou]

Whatever, has anyone tried one of these things?

[Shelby]

14 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Whatever, has anyone tried one of these things?

I think you should take one , or two, for the team .  

[liuzhou]

19 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I think you should take one , or two, for the team .  

 

I was thinking of developing a Chinese Starbucks version of this.

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

I was thinking of developing a Chinese Starbucks version of this.

I've never seen this before.  I guess the bread around the crust is meant to catch the gravy or drippings that come out of the crust?  Seems a bit of overkill to me lol.

[liuzhou]

Just now, Shelby said:

I've never seen this before.  I guess the bread around the crust is meant to catch the gravy or drippings that come out of the crust?  Seems a bit of overkill to me lol.

I'd never seen it until I read this yesterday  Not sure that it improved my life in any way.

[Shelby]

Just now, liuzhou said:

I'd never seen it until I read this yesterday  Not sure that it improved my life in any way.

Oh good.  This makes me feel less sheltered lol.

[IowaDee]

I think that is a "pieper" a cross between a pie and a diaper.

[heidih]

Unresponsive to the pie - I will admit to a current craving for their spinach feta wrap (spinach, feta and egg white in a whole grain tortilla) - crisped on edges and molten center - with squirts of Sriracha which they now have in packets - and a huge iced green tea cuz it is flippin 80 degrees F at 9am!!! I can't get it because the traffic is so bad - tree trimmers blocking roads trying to deal with rain fall-out....

[JeanneCake]

Can we ask them to just go back to coffee, please?  Knock it off with the food already.  Or go back to just the large cookies (I had a molasses cookie there that was ok)

 

I had a "bistro box" once about a year ago and it was not at all good.  It was well within the sell by date, but the "wrap" pieces were soggy, the grapes were mushy and I don't remember what there was for a sweet, or even if there was one.  At something along the lines of $5 or $6 to boot it was an utter waste of money. I did have an almond croissant there that was decent (for what it was.  I'm not comparing it to a freshly made croissant obviously  but for something made far away and shipped in, it wasn't bad. Way better than that bistro box, to be sure!)

 

I haven't seen these "pies" here in the US so do let us know if you try it!

 

[liuzhou]

On 10/03/2017 at 7:23 PM, Tri2Cook said:

When a menu or person says shepherd's pie, I assume it will be beef unless told otherwise and eat it with just as much happiness as I would if they'd called it cottage pie.

 

Well, that's a culture difference. Serving shepherd's pie with beef would be illegal in the UK. Trades Description Act and all that.

 

Anyway, I doubt there is a single Starbucks franchise manager in China who would know the difference between a Trade Description Act and a Drag Act. They struggle to understand what coffee is.