SMH Article: Sydney's Best Pies / The Pie Tin

A nice article from the SMH this morning folks:

http://www.smh.com.au/good-food/eat-out/sydneys-best-pies-20130914-2tqzo.html

I'm hoping that my old mate, the sexually ambiguous Nudgeball can hit a few of these for me (us) over the next few months. Seriously, the guy spends more time in front of a mirror than a Cockatiel, but he does seem to have an affinity for pies. 

I've been to Harry's Café de Wheels, The Upper Crust, and The Pie Tin from this list....all of them were good, but admittedly I was drunker than 10 sailors when I went to Harrys and would have eaten a dirty nappy through a park bench had the opportunity arisen.

For some reason, in this article they've chosen to review the pumpkin, fetta and silverbeet pie from The Pie Tin in Newtown - eeeeeeeww....'every bit as satiating as its meat counterparts', me tit.

That's not a pie, unless you're a deodorant avoiding, boho, tie-died-pants-wearing braless chick with arse-length dreads who helps out on her boyfriend's organic alfalfa sprout farm and it's your birthday so you think, 'hey why not splurge this year?' but after eating it you make yourself sick with worry that maybe not all the ingredients were 100% organic fair trade and some defenceless cow was probably exploited to make the butter for the pastry (did they ask her if they could take her milk?) so you decide that next time you'll just make a wheatgrass smoothie at home and invite a few friends over to listen to Angus & Julia Stone records and chill out instead.

I mean the fact that there are not 1 but 2 (count 'em) vegetarian pies (not to mention one cold pork pie) making the list of Sydney's best pies says to me that maybe Kate Gibbs wasn't the best person in the world to write the article. And before you go calling me a misogynist yet again, may I present the first exhibit for the defence: the pies that I ate when I went there....the Spicy Nepalese Lamb Curry pie:

Beautiful handmade-looking pie presented on a little metal plate - with a couple of little dried chilli seeds on top. Gorgeous.

Golfball-sized chunks of tender juicy lamb in a flavoursome spicy tomato gravy...on par with The Goat Pie Guy's Himalayan Curry Pie.

Good to the last bite - flaky pastry, meat that falls apart, quality gravy. Great pie. Effortlessly scored a 9/10.

Exhibit 2 for the defence: slow roasted shredded pork with apple and BBQ sauce (below):

Look at that lip - it's like a teenager taking a selfie!

OK, so this is either going to look really good to you, or bloody awful. It tasted fantastic. Very moist, sweet from the apple and BBQ sauce, and very porky in flavour. How are those slices of apple at the top...another winner. My only complaint was that it wasn't hot enough. I did eat it second, but I made allowances for cooling time and believe it still should've been hotter. For this reason I can only give it an 8/10.

I've got a feeling that this one above was a bangers and mash pie, but I'm not 100% sure as it was ordered by the Kirribilli Kanuck, who jabbed a finger at the window and said in his outrageous French Canadian accent: 'I'll 'ave dat one over dare, and dat one down dare. Merci beaucoup.' Then proceeded to demolish both before I could take photos.

I think this one was a Mexican pie of some description (sorry about the photography, the hands were a little shaky that day). It certainly looks red and angry enough to be Mexican. That's not a racist comment about Mexicans, by the way. They're brown. And placid. Tremendous people.

I don't know what the hell you're supposed to do with the condiments as there's so much flavour in the pies themselves, but they're a nice touch and well presented. The Kirribilli Kanuck said that the chilli relish went well with his bangers and mash pie, and had a nice hit of heat.

Then, in the unlikely event that you still have room for dessert, there's the most incredible array of sweet pies you've ever seen. The pie on the bottom shelf on the far left is an apple pie that - no kidding - stood at least 6in tall. The pecan pie above it looked amazing, as did the key lime pie at the top right, and the apple blackberry lattice top pie would be the hero of any dinner party.

Oh, did I mention they also sell beer? Imagine washing your pulled pork and apple pie down with a Dirty Granny cider....mmmmm. Welcome to flavour country.

Yep, The Pie Tin in Newtown is the complete package, pie-wise. Due to limited numbers (of pie-tasters), we didn't get to try other mouth-watering temptations such as:

• slow roasted north African style lamb with chermoula
• spicy Cajun style pork, slow cooked with corn & black beans
• sweet roasted duck and seasonal vegetables
• corned beef with white sauce and capers
• slow roasted beef brisket with hickory smoke and mushrooms.

I could go on, but I'm sure you're getting the picture.  Why in the f*ck you'd pick a pumpkin, fetta and silverbeet pie in an article about great pies over any of the above is beyond me. Kate, you need to spend some time in the room of mirrors and take a bloody good hard look at yourself. 

Well Rimmer and I are off to LA and Vegas on Friday for a work conference. No really, it is. Honest! So your Pieologist is going to temporarily going to turn into the Burgerologist. I might do a short posting of any a particularly spectacular burgers, then normal (sporadic) service will be resumed.

If you're on Twitter, check out @thepieologist for any pertinent news updates (such as the KFC pie this week).

Until next time, take care folks and as the KK would say: au revior mes amis!

Cheers

Pieologist.


PS: many thanks to Mike & Scotty, both of whom forwarded the SMH article to me. Cheers guys.