Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills

 

Pastry has a funny way of cheering you up even on the worst of days. Even though I had to wait 30 mins for a bus from Sydney Uni to Surry Hills, and walk for 40 mins back to the city since I got sick of waiting for another bus, once I sank my teeth into the sweet and savoury pastries from Bourke Street Bakery I quickly forgot all about it.

Beef brisket pie - $5.30

I met up with Sir D in the park for a late lunch break and we set up our own little pastry picnic on the grass. I took a bite out of the beef brisket pie and my mouth was filled with tender beef and a thick, flavoursome gravy. Needless to say, the pastry was oh so buttery and it flaked everywhere - a sign of good pastry!

(L-R) Pork & fennel and Lamb & harissa sausage rolls - $4.50 each

Pie and a Pint @ Bungalow 8, King St Wharf

I've always had a love for pies, but it wasn't until I started trying to make my own that I realised how awesome pies really are. Just think - a buttery shortcrust pastry or a flaky puff pastry encasing any sweet or savoury fillings that your heart desires! And with winter having well and truly set in here in Sydney, there are not too many things more comforting than enjoying a pie with a rich, hearty filling for dinner.

Bungalow 8 recently launched their Pie and a Pint winter warmer deal which includes your choice of Beef and Fat Yak ale, Chicken and Sweet Corn or Bungalow 8's Fish pie with mashed potato and a pint of beer for $22.50. The lovely Sarah from Bungalow 8 invited me to try it out so Sir D and I headed down to King Street Wharf to see what they had to offer.

Bungalow 8's Famous Fish Pie

Maggie Beer's Country Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Today is the first birthday of Penguin says Feed Me and we're celebrating with a new banner and PIE! It really does not feel like it's been a year since I started this humble blog of my eating adventures, and I still remember starting up this blog and writing up the very first post thinking that no one was going to read it anyway. I never in my dreams thought that anyone would even read my blog, let alone meeting new people through it, but probably one of the best parts about blogging is meeting and forging friendships with the other awesome Sydney food bloggers (I love you guys!).

I'd like to think that I've come a long way since that first post. Reading other blogs and marvelling at their photographs or cooking prowess has inspired me to improve my own photography and challenged me to further my cooking and baking skills. I've gone from simple apple crumbles to rainbow layered buttercakes, and although there's been a few disasters along the way, I think this blog is what gets me to push the limit of my abilities. Hopefully one day I will master the art of baking as I keep trying new things (why oh why did I choose to take on macarons?!)

One new thing that I've learnt to do is make pastry from scratch. When I first started this blog, making pastry from scratch seemed like the most daunting task - I mean, isn't pastry something you buy from the freezer aisle in the supermarket? But once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult at all, and it is truly satisfying when you can proudly present a pie or a tart and say that you made it all by yourself (or in this case, with the help of Sir D).

Since seeing Maggie Beer's pheasant pie on Masterchef, I've been wanting to make her sour cream pastry and it is so easy to work with and very forgiving. I didn't know where to get a pheasant from so I used another of Maggie Beer's recipes and made her Country Chicken and Mushroom pies with the same flaky and buttery pastry. It was so nice to be able to take a beautiful golden pie out of the oven and very satisfying to eat it, knowing that I had made it from scratch. This is what keeps me cooking and blogging :)

EDIT: Just realised this is also my 100th post!

Pie in the Sky, Cowan

On our way back from The Entrance, we stopped at Pie in the Sky in Cowan. I'd read about this place on Not Quite Nigella and Here Comes The Food, and since Sir D is a big pie-lover we decided to grab a couple of pies. 

It is definitely a pie-lovers paradise with so many different pie fillings to choose from. You can either choose to get your pies in a paper bag or put on a plate for you with cutlery. There's also other delicious additions to your pie such as mash, peas and gravy and although they were very tempting it wasn't quite lunchtime yet so we took ours home.

 

Pies galore!

We stood at the two pie cabinets for a good 10 minutes trying to decide which pies to get. Sir D firmly announced that we were getting one savoury pie and one fruit pie each - excellent! I had decided on the peach pie but was tossing up between the chicken and asparagus and the lamb, honey and rosemary. 

More pies!

We got our pies and hopped back in the car before we got too many stares from the many bikies that seem to congregate here, who were probably wondering why this strange Asian girl was taking photos of everything...