Safari Gourmet Pies

Safari Gourmet Pies
102-5777 Beresford Street
Burnaby, BC

Feel free to call it bad influence from shokutsu (of Foodosophy) and Sherman (of Sherman’s Food Adventures). When they back to back went to the same place and say their offerings are good, I somehow feel compelled to go. And this places is not even restaurant! What place is this? Safari Gourmet Pies. (Sorry, Anita, Mijune, these are not sweet pies!).

Here is a key detail about this place is its location. While not in the middle of nowhere, it is not either a place you would find easily. See, this place is in a semi-industrial area which, at the same time, somewhat near residences. However, there is almost no pedestrian traffic here and, if you drive through this street, chances are, you know the area. How shokutsu found this place… Well, I won’t try to even guess… In my case, I walked in and… Well, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Imagine a mini-mini-mini store and, in the middle, some pies. And, yes, that was the reason I went there

They have over a dozen of pies but I *ahem* restricted myself to these four. They are clockwise from 12:00,  chicken curry, steak and kidney, chicken and mushroom, and steak and cheese. In addition to these prepared, there were others frozen, in the case you wanted to have a stock in the freezer (they also have biltong, if you are interested in it). Since I wanted to try different combinations, I think it gives a wide enough representation.

Now, I only have a picture of the steak and kidneys. That is because, at that moment, I wasn’t that hungry and, if I were to take the picture of the others at a later time, they might not represent the pies very well. Anyway, depending on your expectations of a steak and kidney pie, I found these one lacking of vegetation/filler. Instead, it was mostly the meat (both beef and kidney) and the gravy/sauce. Both types of meat was as expected, i.e., soft after it has been cooked and used as filling. The interesting part was that you couldn’t really taste much of the kidney (if it wasn’t for that semi-dry texture) so, to those who are avert of offal, there is a chance you might have overlooked it! As for the dough/crust, it was thin enough to hold everything, yet not too thick to get into the way of the filling. In that sense, I believe they really mastered the preparation. In fact, aside of some crispiness lost, when I reheated one of them in the microwave another day, it held together quite well.

Once again, this is not a restaurant but, still, they have good eats. In my case, I won’t personally mind dropping by and buying a dozen or so of these pies and have them stocked in the freezer. At just under $3.50, you can do worst with those mass produced one sold in supermarkets.

Tagged under: African • Beef • Burnaby