National Pie Day.

National Pie Day.

It had to arrive sooner rather than later. We've all been licking our lips surely and quite literally. Our taste buds have been craving this moment for ages. Our stomachs have been rumbling for some time although some of us may have finished off a late lunch. We'll be watching the clock on the office wall, while frantically rummaging through our coat pockets in case a bar of chocolate just happens to be at the bottom of them. The time ticks away remorselessly and painfully because we're starving and supper seems hours away.

So we finish off our daily labours, tidy up our desks, shuffle a couple of papers in the in tray and then race out of the doors early in case the Tube railway station is shut for no obvious reason. The dynamics of the day have taken their toll and we just can't wait to get home and dive into the freezer for culinary satisfaction. We just want to get home, put our feet up, soak in a hot bath or shower for at least an hour, cursing both the delays and infrequencies of the London train networks before plunging eagerly into the evening's hot meal. Dinner is about to be served courtesy of your good self or your loving, supportive wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or anybody else who happens to be available. What's on the menu tonight?

Now the realisation kicks in with a vengeance. We've spent two hours in a stifling, packed, overcrowded train, arms and shoulders akimbo, I-Pads locked into some gripping game of zap the Ninja Turtle or noughts and crosses before it hits you. Is there something in the fridge or will we have to resort to our favourite supper staple? As a matter of urgency, we must eat and we know exactly what we'll do.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Today is National Pie Day! Now maybe you knew that it was National Pie Day and this is not entirely newsworthy but it has to be revealed to the nation. Yes everybody, today is perhaps the first day of the year when permission should be given to think about food again. Of course we should think about eating because it doesn't seem like yesterday since we were doing nothing but on the most bumper scale. But so what! It was Christmas and that's the one time of the year when, symbolically, we should all eat and be merry without thinking for a moment about the dietary repercussions.

Still, today is National Pie Day, a celebration of the humble pie, that invariably warm, piping hot and nutritious comestible where we all delight in the simple joys of savouring something very meaty or fruity that makes us feel remarkably good about ourselves. The pie is that delicious supper offering that is perhaps the highlight of a plate surrounded by either chips, potatoes and those vital vegetables.

Pies are probably uppermost in our minds in case we might have run out of food at home. So let's pop down to the fish and chip shop because as an alternative to haddock or cod we can still rely on the pie. So what is it going to be tonight? The meat and potato pie perhaps or the beef and onion pie? Now, in a radical departure from the norm, we might have the chicken and mushroom pie simply by way of a change. The fact is we're simply spoilt for choice and just to be awkward, we may well decide to go for the kebab option.

For as long as any of us can remember Britain and, almost certainly the whole of the world, does like to sink its ravenous teeth into a pie of any description or content. The steak and kidney pie is somehow quintessentially English, fashionable throughout the ages and never less than a treat for tea. We adore pies because they're safe and comfortable, comfort eating perhaps but an absolute necessity when the hunger pangs get to us.

You know where you stand with pies. They just happen to be the most dominant, most appealing and prominent item on the supper plate. They sit easily on the plate with lashings of gravy, luring you, beckoning you, inviting you to dig into that first delectable crust of pastry. The pie has taken your digestive system and alimentary canal into a world of its own. The pie has taken complete ownership of your appetite. It has provided us with that lovely feeling of relaxation and pleasure that makes us  want to sit down on our sofas for the evening and just take it nice and easy.

During the summer of course the fruit pie has to be the centre of attention. Sunday lunches or pub carvery lunches are normally accompanied by our friendly apple pie with tons of custard or ice cream. Now who could possibly resist apple pie? Or maybe you'll find rhubarb crumble more to your liking but then again that isn't really a pie so let us move on.

Here we should perhaps make the important distinction between what some of us may consider to be a pie and what could be interpreted as a flan or cheesecake. The cheesecake, berry fruit crumble or the strawberry flan could be mistaken for a pie but on reflection it simply doesn't resemble a pie. The debate may go on for ages but since this is National Pie Day we feel sure that nobody will mind one way or the other.

Since we're in January thoughts may be turning almost inevitably to diets, losing weight and exercising vigorously in the local gym. Pies should therefore be a taboo subject, forbidden at all costs, never allowed to enter our heads at any time. Besides they're full of fat, a cholesterol nightmare and how many times have we been told that if we eat too many pies we may have cause to regret it?  The guilty pleasure that is the famous pie has now taken hold on our senses and consciousness.

But some of us are just delighted that today is National Pie Day because pies are very quiet and unassuming, content to be one of Britain's favourite edibles, glowing in the glory of being recognised as the nation's pre-eminent dinner. It enjoys the high esteem in which we hold it and would like it to be known that even though it has to compete with cheesecake for our affections it doesn't really mind because we all love a pie. It's as simple as that.  Happy National Pie Day everybody.