Not bad, huh? The gravy really saves it. Soaks right into the pastry, spices up the whole thing.

[He slides it back, not all the way back in front of him but sufficient enough that he can tuck into it without having to reach very far, and proceeds to do precisely that. He is not, strictly speaking, a dignified eater, but at least he's not a slob about it, just a hungry man ready to warm his belly with some good food after a long day.]

Just between you and me, I wouldn't be so quick to make you try it if they were serving fish instead of meat. A meal's a meal when you can't afford to be picky, but scrounging up the right stuff to make it taste like something other than fish is hard to do, a lot of the time.