I believe that I mentioned one of my favorite things - although I had quite a lot of "favorites" to be perfectly honest - from the Fancy Foods Show were the meat pies that I had at the Vili's Gourmet booth. Meat pies are a favorite Australian snack food, the sort of thing that you'll find at pubs, random takeaways and - of course - at any major sporting event. They exactly what they sound like, too: small pastries that are filled with a thick mixture of meat and gravy. It's important that the filling be thick enough not to run out all over the eater, since the pies are usually eaten by hand and they are best when topped of with a bit of tomato sauce (ketchup).
Vili's Gourmet is looking to take their absolutely delicious Aussie favorite and make some inroads to the US market. As far as I know, they're not widely available yet. The guys working the booth assured me that not only would it just be a matter of time, but that they would let me know where and when you can find them. The pies are handmade with Australian beef and light, flaky pastry. The company makes a wide variety of flavors, as well as pies with chicken and other meats for those who don't want beef, but the best one I sampled was the Beef Curry pie. It was extremely well seasoned, with just enough curry to give it some heat.
The pies are almost worth a trip overseas just to find a place that stocks them, but I'll wait it out here in the US for now and hope that it's not too long before they're easy to find.
[thanks for the picture, elise!]
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