meat pie – Around the World in 196 Plates

Country 102 – Benin (Kejjis)

Published on February 9, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5 McMurchy Avenue North, Brampton
Website: https://kejjis.com/

I think the meat pie is one those dishes that’s served in basically every part of the world. From Jamaican patties to Argentinian empanadas to Cornish pasties (and beyond), it’s safe to say that wrapping meat in pastry is a universally beloved concept.

What’s not to love? You’ve got tasty pastry and savoury ground meat, all delivered in a convenient hand-held package. It’s great.

I recently tried African pepper soup and found it to be an acquired taste that I clearly haven’t acquired. Well, the meat pies they serve at Kejjis are the complete opposite. I could eat about a million of them.

The pastry shell is closer to an empanada than a Jamaican patty, with a slightly denser texture (perhaps a bit overly dense) and a lightly crispy exterior. It’s decent enough, but it’s clearly just there as a vehicle for the meat; the meat-to-pastry ratio is something like like 10:1.

And that meat is absolutely fantastic — it’s tender and moist with no greasiness, and the flavour, oddly enough, reminded me a lot of an enhanced version of an American breakfast sausage (think: Jimmy Dean, Bob Evans, etc.). It’s definitely not what I was expecting, but it was absolutely delicious.

Country 063 – Moldova (Moldova Restaurant)

Published on February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

It would have been nice if my first post-hiatus restaurant had been a little bit better than this, but then my pre-hiatus restaurant wasn’t great either. So I guess there’s a symmetry there.

And I won’t say that Moldova Restaurant was flat-out bad. The meal had its moments.

It started out uniquely enough — the bread basket came with a side of some kind of sweet, intensely garlicky salsa. It was interesting.

I started with the zamma — a Moldovan take on chicken noodle soup. Aside from the pronounced dill flavour, this tasted like it could have come out of a can. The hearty chunks of chicken and potato added some substance, but the flavour was just generic saltiness.

Next up was the chebureki, which the menu describes as a “fried meat pie.” This was fine. The thin pie shell was nice and crispy, and the sausagey filling was mild, but satisfying. I feel like it was missing something, but it was enjoyable enough.

Finally there was the mamaliga, which is essentially a Moldovan polenta. I like polenta, but I wasn’t crazy about this version. It was pretty tasteless (hence the sour cream and the feta cheese), and the texture was overly thick and gluey.

Country 030 – New Zealand (Hemingway’s)

Published on April 3, 2016April 3, 2016 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 142 Cumberland Street, Toronto
Website: http://hemingways.to/

Quick: name three dishes that come to mind when you think of food from New Zealand.

Yeah, me neither.

Suffice it to say, whatever New Zealand is known for, it’s probably not food (other than, of course, the ubiquitous New Zealand lamb).

Hemingway’s seems to be one of the only restaurants in the city representing Kiwi cuisine, with that representation being loose at best — its menu is dedicated almost entirely to generic pub staples like nachos, chicken wings, and burgers. The brunch menu, however, does have one dish of interest: the New Zealand Bacon and Egg Pie, which is described as “a New Zealand favourite.”

The pie is filled with bacon, eggs, onion, and peas, and wrapped in a flaky puff pastry crust. It reminded me a lot of the pies from the Pie Commission — but those pies are always delicious, so it’s like a bizzaro-world version of the Pie Commission, where the Pie Commission is lousy.

Yeah, it’s not great, unfortunately. The pie has two separate layers — a bottom layer of meat, and a top layer of egg. The egg is disastrously overcooked, with a rubbery white and a chalky, desiccated yolk. That alone is enough to sink the pie, but even the meat layer is underwhelming. Despite being crammed with bacon, the flavour is muddled, underseasoned and bland. It also had an underlying funkiness that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It’s kind of unpleasant.

The crust was quite nice, though, with a good balance between substance and flakiness. It made an amiable attempt to save the pie, but alas, it was DOA.