...And now a word from the other side of the world!

As many of you know, meat pies are amazing, versatile, and delicious. No one knows this better than those lucky enough to live in a magical place where meat pies are available in every convenience shop, each bakery, and around every corner. My New Zealand Correspondant, Nicole Andrews, has just sent me the fruits of her research on a variety of tasty meat pies! Read, drool, get inspired...




This is from the Arrowtown Bakery which is just outside of Queenstown (where I used to live the last few years). This is the Hot and Spicy pie, which basically is just a chicken pie with like a tobasco-ish flavor. I seriously love it though. It's simple and good. Kiwi pies are usually very simple.

This Mushroom Pie is also from Arrowtown Bakery. The tops always peel off on the kiwi pies for some reason. I think its so they can shove ketchup in it. That's a big Kiwi thing.


This is a store bought Potato top and mince pie (Like a shepherd's pie!)... This one is just a generic pie that you can get from a convenience store (like a lot of pies). Mince is ground meat, usually beef here.


Here's another mince pie (ground beef) with beef gravy and cheese, which has a layer of fake cheese on top. This is called "Cheese and mince."

Another Mince and Cheese pie. This one had real cheese in it...



Another store bought heat lamp pie. Not fancy at all, but this is a good brand. Pies here are like burritos in America. They are everywhere, everyone eats them, you can get them frozen, you can get them in a nice restaurant, and you can get them in convenience stores and gas stations. There are many varieties but usually the same old flavors are the favorites.


This is a case from a cafe in town. There are some seriously awesome pies in the cafes here. These pies are probably about $10 though, so I rarely get one. All the pies earlier in the email are more like $2.50 or $3.50.

Here is a Chicken Tikka Masala Pie. The brand is from a local Indian restaurant chain. Apparently Brad Pitt ate there once or something, but despite that rumored endorsement, the pie was not so good. I've had Thai yellow curry, chicken, and coconut pies in Queenstown before and all were really good. This one not so much, but its probably the brand...

There you have it, folks! The low down on pies down under! I think I may have just come up with a couple new recipes myself!