Bally Bakehouse, 44 Woodbine St North Balgowlah

When Sydney correspondent Crashball sent in the following guest review of Bally Bakehouse, I read the Woodbine St address and my mind instantly zipped back 20 years to when DTK (last week's guest reviewer) and I were living in London.

Our friend Lodgie (dearly departed) was a mad Sheffield United fan, and introduced us to two things: black pudding, and the Greasy Chip Butty song.

The black pudding intro went thus: 'you see lads', he says to the new young 'uns in the office, counting off the ingredients on his sausage-like fingers and waggling his head from side to side, 'you've got blood, and fat, and spices...add in a couple of eggs and a bit of fried bread and a pint of bitter, and viola...breakfast of champions!'

The other thing Lodgie introduced us to was the Greasy Chip Butty song (sung to the tune of Annies Song):

You fill up my senses
like a gallon of Magnet
like a packet of Woodbines
like a good pinch of snuff
like a night out in Sheffield
like a greasy chip butty
like Sheffield United
come fill me again!
Na Na Na Naa Naa Naaaaa, ooo!

Well the lyrics don't really do it justice, so here you go:

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

It's got the lot really - football, strong beer, strong durries, snuff, chip sandwiches....who wouldn't want to go to Sheffield?

Anyway as that has very little at all to do with this week's review, I'll cut my losses and move on. In May last year, Crashball gave us a review of arguably Sydney's (some say Australia's) best pie shop, The Upper Crust at Collaroy. This time, he's toddled around the corner to his local. Take it away, Crashball:

After recently discovering the PieApp for my mobile phone, I felt I had to kick the tires before getting your hopes up if the app failed to deliver.  The app uses the results of the Official Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition to show the location of winning (gold, silver and bronze) pies.  To my great delight, the app informed me of a bakery, just up the road form my place, that had taken a silver in the most recent competition (2012) for both their Beef Stroganoff and Chicken Cranberry & Camembert.  They’d actually taken Gold the year before.

I have to say, it felt like Christmas.  So I jumped on my BMX and made my way up the hill to a set of shops that could almost be my local milk bar......accept it’s in North Balgowlah, Balgowlah’s poor cousin, so I never go there unless I’m covered in paint or on my way home from the tip. [both of which seem to happen a lot - Pieologist]  Unfortunately I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of the store itself, but it was reasonably new and very clean in appearance, they sold more than just pies and everything looked quite enticing. I nearly bought a finger bun for old times. [Facebook to the rescue - see below]

I had to have the Beef Stroganoff and I would normally get a Beef and Mushroom to accompany, but switched today and purchased a Chunky Curry Beef and a Plain Minced pie for the ball and chain.  Since my last guest review, the old girl has actually grown to like the occasional pie, I don’t know if it's wisdom with age or the fact that she’s been accepted to become an Aussie, either way I’m not stopping to ask, it makes life easier.

All three pies were the same size, with the two ‘gourmet’ pies costing $5-95 and the plan mince meat $4-95, not bad for Syd-bend over AND give my your first born-ney.  As a side note: I was recently in London and found myself telling geezer mates how cheap I was finding their city, I don’t often agree with Queenslanders, but Sydney needs an uppercut.   As you can see from the picture, two of the three were beautifully brown whilst one looked a little anaemic.

Firstly, the Beef Strog and in this case; Michael in the Jacksons.  One word; disappointing.  The colour was a giveaway to its problems, it was undercooked.  As a result the base was too soft and the top wasn’t flaky.  The filling passed the driving test despite the slightly underdone case, but it was almost completely void of stroganoff flavouring.  I actually stopped eating the pie just after the photo and started on my second pie…. I finished it later, but that’s more a reflection on me. 4.5/10. 

Next up, the Chunky Beef Curry, I’m not a religious man, but A-fwarking-men.  This pie was cooked to perfection, the base was firm, the top flaky and the filling delicious with its ‘type A’ curry flavouring.  The pie definitely passed the driving test and was full of tender chunky beef.  It also had a surprising amount of heat.  I’ve been guilty of telling someone there’s not much chilli in the food, because I hadn’t noticed it and moments later I’m watching them stick their head under the water cooler, but I could tell this little puppy had kick. 9/10.

Lastly, the plain mince pie.  The wife puts tomato sauce on everything. I can serve up a beautiful bolognaise and she’ll smother it with tomato sauce before tasting it. So I had to grab my bite before she ruined it, so this was actually the first pie I tasted.  The base and top were the same as the Chunky Curry Beef and it passed the driving test. But it’s flavouring was a bland, I’d say the thing was aptly named; ‘Plain Mince’, that said, she’d eaten ¾ before I noticed and snapped the photo. 5/10 

Thanks for that bro. Great to see you're showing the little woman how we roll in Austraya by taking the first bite out of her pie. Kudos. 

FYI, the Great Aussie Pie Competition will be on again from 9-12th September. Stay tuned for a full report later in the year. 

http://www.greataussiepiecomp.com.au/

I must say that I have the Pie App on my phone too, and whilst Queensland bakeries are fairly poorly represented in the national competition, the app is certainly worthwhile if you like a pie (and let's face it, you wouldn't be wasting your time on this drivel if you didn't) and if you travel around the countryside, Leyland-brothers-style. 

Speaking of which, as I mentioned last week this arrived recently from Dicky who is lost in the outback somewhere (last heard of in south-western Qld). I'm not quite sure what the cutlery and sweet chilli sauce are doing on the plate, but:

Please forward to The Pieologist for consideration. Sorry, was so ravenous was almost finished before we remembered to take photographic evidence of this magnificent Curry Beef Pie, beautiful tasty onion, beef, golden crust with solid bottom (ha!) should pass the driving test. Where, you may ask? Hebel Store, just the right side of the Qld border. Their motto: "come and eat your heart out"!  R&S xx

Next week, Chris' secret family beef cheek recipe, and my own half-arsed attempt at making pies.

Until then, take care.

Cheers

Pieologist