A Tale of Two Pies

I went to Agfest last weekend (yes still doing the happy dance for that and only about 359 sleep til it comes around again) and I broke the tradition of a lifetime and I had a pie - well two actually.

On the way I stopped in at Andy's Bakery in Westbury for one of their "famous" Tassie Devil pies. Now I say famous because I am very new to the area but the sign told me so, and it also added that no Tassie Devils were actually in the pie - it was beef and pepper. Now the pastry was pretty standard pie pastry, there was real meat (grass fed beef according to another sign which is a big thumbs up from me) and quite a bit of it and lots of pepper. Now I mean LOTS of pepper. I can't actually tell you what the pie tasted like, apart from peppery. And the gravy oozed. I don't like oozy gravy in a pie - it makes a mess, makes it hard to eat and well, distracts from the eating process to the "how am I going to get this in my mouth before it goes everywhere" process. Overall, it wasn't bad, less pepper and it would have been good, but I won't buy another. Cost: $6.50

Then at Agfest I got a wallaby pie from the Railton Town of Topiary tea Room (no website but this one is a start) which I confess was one of my goals of the day. Well more accurately, I had a choice of a rabbit or wallaby pie but had to choose one (the rabbit will wait for another day). This one was perfect! Crisp flaky pastry (home made maybe), full of meat and veg perfectly cooked with a minimum of gravy but nowhere near dry. Served with a homestyle relish which was full of bounce. Full of taste. Highly recommended. Cost $8.00.

And just as a small addendum, I also bought a sausage roll from Andy's (don't say it, I know but I was on a food exploration day). Now sausage rolls, for me, have a scale from Mrs Macs (which I am not sure can actually be described as a "sausage roll" through to the sausage rolls at the BP Williams Roadhouse (WA) which has the ultimate product (unless I cook it myself of course lol). Anyway, this one was definitely at the Mrs Macs end. I am quite confident in recommending it to my vegetarian friends because I am quite sure that no animal died in making of that roll. I was trying to work out the filling because it had a certain taste an texture to it - I was thinking of under-cooked rolled oats for a while but then it came to me - it tasted like paper. Yes I am serious. I even checked to verify that I wasn't accidentally eating some of the paper bag it came in (and no I wasn't). Now I am not suggesting it had paper in it (there are food laws after all) but I can't describe the taste any other way. Cost $3.50.