Pie night in Australia!

Last Thursday, my friend Brooke -- who will some day make the world's greatest mother -- hosted Pie Night, a semi-regular event that has become something of a tradition. This was my first taste of Pie Night, and it absolutely did not disappoint.

To reiterate a point that I may or may not have already discussed in this space,* there are two very distinct types of pies in Australia: savory pies and sweet pies. Savory pies are actual meals, as I discovered many, many, many times over at Harry's Carte de Wheels during my end of season cricket trip to Newcastle back in April. Generally, they're maybe four or five inches in diameter and have a meat filling with some type of sauce. Sweet pies are dessert pies, and pretty much in line with what Americans are used to.

*I guess if I haven't already discussed this in a prior post, then I'm not really reiterating it, huh? Would I just be iterating it?**

**Did I just make the horrific leap into Dad joke territory?

Pie night was all about the savory pies; this was the meal. And my lord, were those pies were amazing. Brooke made them the previous day with a Pie Wizard, which is the greatest thing ever invented. She made two types: creamy chicken and tomato mince. The creamy chicken featured chicken, capsicum (aka red peppers) and two of my favorite ingredients ever: sweet chili sauce and garlic. Ridiculously good, it was. Tasted almost like a curry, it did. And the tomato mince was no slouch either, although much more of an over-the-plate execution.

About the time we had all finished stuffing ourselves with the pies and some sides of fries and salad, we heard a blood-curdling scream come from the building next to us. Our first reaction as a group was to laugh; not sure why, but it came fairly naturally. Then someone said, "Hold on, that actually sounded kind of serious." And then the screaming actually continued, this time outside. We went out to see what was going on, and across the street, we made out a guy and girl in a bit of a struggle. They broke apart, and the guy headed off down the street.

Even now, several days later, we're not exactly sure what happened, but it seems like this guy broke into the girl's apartment and snatched her laptop. She actually went after him, and what we briefly saw in the darkness outside was her trying to get the laptop back off of him. Yet to add to our confusion, there was a car stopped in the middle of the road with a bike lying in front of it. But there was no rider. Very strange.

Anyway, we shook off this diversion, regrouped and went back inside for dessert. In the past, the group has followed up the savory pies with dessert pies, but I guess this was found to be overkill on the pies. So on this night, we had ice cream. Simple and straightforward, but a nice ending to a massive and eventful meal.