PIE

Brace yourselves; this is awesome.

I was listening to CBC Radio at work today - I love the CBC. A piece comes on about a local shop in Montreal that's supporting the relief efforts for the New Zealand earthquake. Cool, I thought.

But wait, what was the shop? A PIE STORE. They're called Tourtiere Austrailienne or Ta, and they make New Zealandian (?) and Australian meat pies and desserts and sell them all of 1km away from my apartment.

Let me tell you a little something about pie: I love pie. Fruit pies, meat pies, keish... if you can fill a pastry with something, I will love it. In fact, my first word as a human being on this planet was "pie" - one of my parents was holding me at a party, and someone walked into the room carrying a huge plate of dessert. My eyes widened, my mouth opened slightly, and I pointed and exclaimed, "PIE!"

After work, I skipped every other errand I had planned (I fly back to Saskatoon on Friday morning and needed to get lots done today) and went straight to Ta to buy a steak & mushroom pie.

On the way, I passed the Tam-tams du mont Royal:

This is where stoner hippies play drums on weekends! 

I arrived at Ta:

I walked in the door and the entire place smelled like pastry and pie. It was incredible.

I asked the woman working the till for a steak and mushroom pie, just like I'd heard on the radio. Unfortunately, they had sold out within 30 minutes of the program airing! She offered a compromise: "we have plenty of steak, bacon & cheese pies left".

I thought to myself, can you translate "fuck yeah?!?!" to New Zealandian? I bought the pie and told the woman how "pie" was my first word. She thought that was pretty awesome.

You can buy the pies refrigerated or frozen, and you heat them up in your oven. Their website says, "Microwaving our pastry is a crime and it will result in soggy pastry and is not recommended." Duly noted!

I heated it up for about 30 minutes and it was amazing:

Perfect pastry (apparently it takes two whole days to make), enormous chunks of tender beef, bacon, and cheese with a gravy sauce, and even a few vegetables hidden in there. I anticipated it being too salty but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not!

Delicious. Now if anyone comes to visit me in Montreal, I can promise I'll have an Australian meat pie waiting in my freezer for when you arrive.