Meat Pies

We discovered some of Jeff’s food passions while we were having breakfast at Drexel’s, New Zealand’s answer to the great American breakfast. First, he’s excited to find ‘drip coffee’ and bottomless service at Drexel’s (most coffee shops serve espresso only, and drip coffee is almost impossible to find, something that could shock and appall most Tim Hortons-addicted Canadians. Jeff’s coming home to Canada for Christmas, and visits to Tim’s are definitely on his itinerary).

Second, he loves meat pies. As soon as I’d heard that New Zealanders take pride in their meat pies, I knew we would have to try them. And since Kelly’s French-Canadian blood gives him a particular affinity toward meat in pastry, I knew we’d have to try them soon.

When we mentioned picking up some meat pies to take with us on our little overnight trek to Mt. Somers, Jeff’s eyes lit up. “Did you know,” he beamed, “that there was a great controversy over the quality of New Zealand’s meat pies? Some people tried to get away with producing the cheapest pies for the greatest mark-ups, so the government passed a law requiring there to be a certain percentage of meat in a pie in order to call it a ‘meat pie’.” Now that’s good government.

He went on to describe how he’s figured out that the potato-topped meat pies actually have more meat by far than the typical pastry pies, because potato is heavier than pastry, so in order to meet the percentage weight requirement for meat, they have to add even more. Jeff loves the potato tops.

We’ve now got a dozen little pies in our cooler ready for the trip. There’s steak and mushroom; mince and cheese; chicken, apricot, cream cheese and cashew; and, satay chicken. Let the meat pie gluttony begin! Between that and my little collection of gourmet cheeses etcetera, we will eat very well indeed.