Country Cob Bakery, Boronia

The humble meat pie is the quintessential Australian food. China has its Xiao Long Bao, Malaysia its Nasi Lemak and Australia has its meat pies! (of course, I'm over generalising here, there are so many other delicious foods in each of the aforementioned countries).

And where do the best meat pie in Australia come from?? Country Cob Bakery!! This bakery is located in Kyneton and Boronia, and its American BBQ Whisky Pork and Quail Eggs Pie has just been awarded the Best Gourmet Pie in the whole of Australia by the Baking Association of Australia! It's Pepper Beef Pie was awarded the Best Pepper Beef Pie and they also received a myriad of other awards, not just this year but in the past few years too. And to think we have not tried them before today... sigh*

We bought the Pepper Beef Pie and the BBQ Pork and Quail Eggs Pie to try, as well as a Vanilla Slice. A very typical Aussie lunch, it makes me want to eat them at a construction site with a cold beer by my side. 

Pictured below is the BBQ Pork and Quail Eggs Pie ($6.90). See those markings on the pie? They are there so people don't get confused about which pies they're getting. The full summary of pie markings can be found on their Facebook page if you're interested. With over 30 varieties of flavours, it's a wonder that the staff can remember which pie is which! 

There are several things that I look out for in a good pie - pastry, filling, and sauce. And this pie just ticks all of them!! (oh except one). The pastry was light, does not feel oily or heavy. It was flaky and fragrant. It was generously filled with big chunks of beef and oodles of sauce. It was tasty stuff. The only gripe I had was that the pie I got DID NOT HAVE ANY QUAIL EGGS!! :( :( :( :( :(... (some tears there).

Look at the picture below of the pie innards, there is not one quail egg to be seen whereas the sample picture of the same pie on their Instagram account had at least 3 eggs. I love quail eggs so I was very disappointed. Maybe they forgot to fill my pie with any quails eggs.

Gaz had the Pepper Beef Pie ($5.90) which was delicious, so much tasty gravy. It certainly lived up to its name, it has 3 different types of peppers in the pie though it was too peppery for me. Compared to the Gourmet Pies, the pepper beef pie had minced meat (rather than meat chunks) filling but I enjoy a traditional meat pie nevertheless.

For dessert, we devoured their Vanilla Slice which definitely deserves equal mention as their pies. The vanilla custard was soooo good! The taste of vanilla was thoroughly unadulterated, the pastry was fresh. I think it deserves an award of its own. 

Country Cob Bakery has appeared in many media including being the subject in a short film by SBS. The founders are two brothers from Cambodia who migrated to Australia and decided to open up a pie shop because they had never had pies in Cambodia before. It's such an inspiration to see their success story unfold. I hope they continue to do well. For those who wish to taste their pies, the bakery is open through Covid19 and does delivery too, delivery is free for orders over $100 in September. 

As a side, I have posted a picture of my chicken pie that I made for Gaz's mom here. It certainly is no award winner, but I put a very cute touch on the pie, spelling out the word MOM. The recipient was easily amused and thought it was an innovative touch.