Yatala Pie Shop

Happy Australia Day everybody - for those of you not eating lamb, I hope you manage to get yourselves a pie - or even better, a lamb pie!

This week, I've tackled the big Kahuna of Queensland pies - the Yatala Pie Shop. Yatala has been around since Moses was a lad, and is one of those places like the Brekkie Creek - for every person who loves the steaks, there's another 2 people telling you about their last poor experience, and how they're nothing like they were in the good old days, as per the ‘Gurge song: 'I like your old stuff better than your new stuff'.

Often though, our recollection of the good old days is tinted by rose coloured glasses. Wagon Wheels weren't the size of an actual wagon wheel; Sunny Boys weren't as big as your head, Paddle Pops weren't choloclate-ier, Brekkie Creek steaks weren't larger and more tender, and guess what? Neither were Yatala pies.

I must admit that I love the Creek, but when it comes to Yatala I hadn't been impressed with my last couple of visits. I'm particularly uncomfortable with a couple of things in particular. The pies can have a tendency to be big and pale and anaemic looking, like Gwenneth Paltrow; but infinitely more serious is their encouragement of the use of little plastic UTENSILS to eat their pies. Warning: rant ahead.

This, in my humble but usually well-informed opinion, is sending the wrong message to a whole new generation of pie-eaters. Being based on the major arterial highway, Yatala also attracts interstate visitors from up and down the eastern seaboard. This reflects poorly on Queensland in general...that we should let this sort of shenanigans go unchecked is a tacit endorsement of what we - that's you and I, dear readers - have conclusively shown to be un-Australian behavior. It's simply not on.

And if you think I'm joking, take a look at the following photo, which I am calling 'Australia's Shame'. This rooster is a young tradie (note the King Gee longs and steel caps) eating a pie with a plastic fork, whilst on the phone to his girlfriend with a bottle of water (not a chocky milk) in front of him. This bloke is surely the Michael Clarke of tradies. And I'm not talking about the 300-plus run-scoring machine of late; I'm talking about the bloke who doesn't want to sing Under the Southern Cross I Stand because his girlfriend is waiting outside the dressing room with a bottle of Cristal and a pocketful of pingers. Bruce Ruxton would roll over in his grave if he could see this. Sam Kekovich would have another heart attack. It's disgraceful. This kid needs some serious time in the room of mirrors. No wonder he’s eating alone.

Use Your Hands, Son!

 I recently spoke to young Gareth, who literally grew up around the corner from Yatala Pies, and had a school holiday job with them off and on for years. I mentioned that the pies could do with an egg wash to make them look a bit less like an English tourist on Bondi beach. He said that the pies are prepared en masse, sprayed with an egg wash-like solution, baked,  then put into cold storage until they are required; whereupon they are reheated in the original ovens that date back to the big bang. The key words above are 'sprayed' (not brushed), and 'egg wash-like' (not egg washed).

I acknowledge that individually brushing egg wash on is labour intensive, but it's the little things that separate the men from the boys. When George Bradman handed his son Don a stump and a golf ball and suggested that he go and practice against the water tank, did The Don say, 'bugger that, I can't be arsed, Dad’? Of course he bloody didn't. He just got in there and did it, and the rest is history. Yatala has more staff than the Red Army and an inexhaustible supply of customers - if cost is the issue, bang another 10 cents on every pie and do the hard yards.

Lamb Coconut Curry Pie

So enough ranting and on to the lamb coconut curry pie, which I egg washed before baking at 180 for 40 minutes from frozen. As you can see, the results were pretty spectacular. This is an oversize pie with a lot of tasty filling. The curry isn't a type 1, but I can't say for sure whether it was a specific type of curry. The closest approximation I could give you is a Massaman (aka Massive-Man). Like a true Massaman, there wasn't really any heat to speak of; just a lovely creamy coconutty sauce supporting some seriously large tender chunks of lamb that went all the way through the pie. The lamb wasn't dry at all and the viscosity was bang-on. 

The top pastry was buttery and flaky and the base held together perfectly right to the end. An easy pass on the driving test, and no excuses for cutlery. Having sampled half a dozen different pies from Yatala, this is the pie I will choose from now on. For mine, it's a stand out winner and I can highly recommend it. Score is 9/10.

Yatala Curry Steak

With opinions divided and the store being a marquee in its field, I decided that it deserved a return visit (I’m nothing if not thorough). So Crispy and I headed down there with empty stomachs and high expectations. It was a hot day, and the car park was as full as a fat lady's sock. We decided that we could comfortably fit in a pie and a half each, so I went for the curry steak (surprise surprise), Crispy opted for a steak bacon and cheese, and we agreed that the 'share pie' should be something non-standard. The minted lamb and pea therefore chose itself.

Pricing was about $5.60 - $5.80 which is fine as these are quite large pies from Yatala's Gourmet selection. 'Standard' pies weigh in at only $4.80, which these days, and at this (over)size is a bargain. They also come with the option of mushy peas, making them into a fairly substantial meal. You're going to struggle wedging a second pie in if you add peas...but be my guest if you think you're man enough. Just make sure you let me know. They also offer free sauce, which I like (in principle; I don’t agree with actually using it). There is also a huge range of sweet treats if you can’t face a second pie.

As you can see from this photo, the top of my curry steak is nice and crunchy and not at all Paltrow-like, despite the spray of egg wash-like solution. I was pleasantly surprised. Crispys pie had a nice scattering of bacon across the top. I would like to have seen more cheese beneath the lid of his (there wasn't any), but he was happy with it overall and said the temperature was spot on - as was mine. 

Curry Beef Innards

My Type 1 curry beef was pretty good, although I guess to a certain extent they feel the need to make the pie commercially popular to the masses due to the nature of their business, so the result is a pie that isn't particularly challenging curry-wise, but nice nonetheless.  There was no problem with the engineering, and driving wouldn't be an issue. The filling was moist enough without wanting to divest itself of its pastry home and consisted of chunks of minced beef and plenty of it. My score was 7.5/10

Because the lamb and pea pie was cut in half, my first bite wasn't a mouthful of pastry as it would normally be; but a mouthful of lambyness. The mint was instantly apparent, and there were a plethora of plump tender peas. The casing and top were identical to my curry pie, which I like because it demonstrates consistency (as there is a good chance that they were made on different days, and Yatala claims that every pie is hand made). The lamb was delicious, well seasoned, and like the curry pie there was plenty of filling. My only regret was sharing it. Score is 8/10.

The bottom line here is that I guess my faith in Yatala has been restored - although I went through the drive-thru a week later and picked up what I thought was another couple of Lamb Coconut Curry pies for the freezer. When I got home, I discovered that they had given me more Lamb / Mint / Pea pies by mistake....which really was my mistake, because in the words of Leo Getz (aka Joe Pesci) you know what they do at the drive-thru:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRP8Tl4BsUQ

Until next week - cheers!