Long live Macaroni Pies, the delicacy the English are missing out on

Bakeries in England are full of cakes, scones and pastries, but they are missing one crucial thing. The magnificent Macaroni Pie. This carb overdose is just as iconic as the legendary Haggis, but is so often overlooked when people talk about great Scottish food.

Our cuisine is defined by many English as battered Mars Bars, Buckfast or Tunnock’s Tea Cakes. What they don’t realise is that one of their favourite cheesy dishes has been reimagined by the Scottish, and made ten times better.

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So it’s like mac and cheese, but baked into a pie

It’s simple. Macaroni with its gooey, cheesy wonderfulness baked into a crusty pie. The sweet spot where Italian and Scottish cuisine come together to create a comfort food masterpiece. Hot or cold, they’re wonderful.

Forget a Big Mac or a fry-up, it may actually be the ultimate hangover cure. The heartiness of Macaroni with the calorie packed pastry is the only way a hangover can be sorted. God bless the 24 hour bakery in Dundee.

You can have it with anything

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The Macaroni Pie is such a versatile dish that it is the staple diet of many plumbers’ lunches, coupled with a Yum Yum and a bottle of Irn Bru. But it can also be smartened up, given a bow tie and told to stand up straight and pass as top quality cuisine.

Eaten with a knife and fork, the Macaroni Pie adopts a whole new form of sophistication. Just watching the golden cheese ooze out is a heavenly experience.

Even Greggs used to sell them here

Goodnight sweet Prince

Macaroni Pies will be found in any of your local Scottish bakeries, but was also sold exclusively in Scottish branches of Greggs. I guess they just decided the English couldn’t handle it. They’re almost impossible to buy anywhere south of the border.

Believe it or not, it was actually one of healthiest things you could buy at Greggs. At 262 calories per pie, it’s a leaner choice than the 433 calorie Cheese and Onion Pasty.

In the Macaroni Pie’s absence from Greggs, Bayne’s do by far the best.

They’re an institution

When Greggs pulled them from the shelves last year, there was widespread outrage. Petitions reached thousands of signatures and we just stopped short of protesting in the street. One of the few things the SNP, Tories and Scottish Labour could agree on was the campaign to save Macaroni Pies. Even Nichola Sturgeon personally backed the campaign.

Long. Live. Macaroni Pies.

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Next time you visit Scotland and fancy trying the ‘some Scottish food’, forget the haggis balls. Pick up a pie from any bakery

Special shout outs to The Piemaker in Edinburgh and Old Salty’s in Glasgow for top Macaroni Pies too.