Good Pies

• A1 Bakery

122 Station Street
Fairfield
Victoria

Staying close to home for your pie-correspondent-at-increasingly-large, today we visit the tremendous hole-in-the-wall that is Fairfield’s A1 Bakery. It’s billed as a Lebanese bakery, and has a pretty damned broad array of things to choose from if you aren’t there for pies. But I was, so let’s talk pies.

For no other reason than a devil-may-care approach to all of piedom, I went with the Japanese Beef Curry, which the charming and friendly staff put in the oven behind the counter right away. Have to admit that I was a bit suss that the pie was going to be cold in the middle, but when they called my name and brought out my food (I also got a Chunky Beef pie and a doughnut that I am sure is going to give me the Wilford Brimley diabeetus) the brown paper bags were piping hot.

I wanted to make sure I was giving the flavour every opportunity so no sauce today — we are out here just raw-dogging pies for science. The inviting curry smell hits you before you even take a bite, and when you do your choice is rewarded — this is a great-tasting pie. I don’t know flavour words because I was brought up to be manly and only use “great” , “fantastic”, “pretty good”, or “shithouse” to describe experiences, but if you knew flavour words you’d choose some pretty good ones.

A word of warning though — this is not a super-portable pie. The lid on mine separated a bit from the casing and the filling was very keen to be introduced to my lap at all costs. You’re not going to be eating this while driving unless you have asbestos pants and don’t mind looking like someone put your bum on backwards and then you had an “accident”.

Put that minor note aside (or use a plate, you filthy animal), and there’s plenty of reasons to go back to A1. But make sure you check their opening hours because they don’t live the 7 day a week pie-life.