Saturday, 11 February 2012

The New Pieland? New Zealand Pie Review

New Zealand Pie Review - Gold Star Bakery

Here at Pierate we heard a claim that a small pie shop in a small town in a small country was delivering some top quality pies that could beat anything we've ever tried before. It's a claim we hear often, and obviously we're always willing to do what it takes to put the claims to the test. Even if it means travelling to a small pie shop in a small town in the small country of New Zealand...

 The Gold Star Bakery in Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand, boasts victory at the Supreme Pie Awards in 2003, 2004 and 2009. As we all well know, the Supreme Pie Awards are a pretty big deal, with many international Pierateers keeping a keen eye on the results each year. It was certainly a great privilege to have been given this opportunity by Pierate.co.uk to sample one of their pies firsthand.
 The Gold Star Bakery is very proud of its awards. Incidentally, Rotorua is a town built in a geothermally active area. Let's hope the pie doesn't smell of sulphur like the rest of the town does.
I buy a Chicken and Vegetable pie, which was awarded a Silver Medal at the 2009 NZ Supreme Pie Awards. The packaging informs me of the Gold Star's additional awards of NZ Pie Award Winner 2005, 2006 and 2007. I am very excited!
The pie contains genuine bits of chicken contained in a crispy crunchy delicious golden pastry package, along with some of the smoothest gravy known to the man. The consistency of the gravy is an absolute delight. Too many times I've had a pie that's fallen apart in my hands, but the texture of this pie holds it together perfectly. No fork needed! As you can see the pie is filled to the brim with delicious content. I'm not surprised it's an award winner! The cost was about NZ$4.00, which is about £2.00, not bad for a winning pie. While I would say that the pie is worth travelling to New Zealand for, it's not the best pie I've ever had. It's drawback? When you've had the likes of a Venison and Prune pie, the ingredients in this offering are just not really that inventive.


Score: 6.41/7
TJP

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations to the pierateers on branching out to a new continent and finding such a good pie! If only they were available in the UK.

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  2. New Zealand is a rate-able pie mecca, good pies everywhere but for the pie tourist, these are a must: Arrowtown Bakery & Cafe, Edinburgh Dairy & Lunch Bar in Paerata (pronounced Pie-rata ;), Johnny Nation's Chocolate Eclair Shop in Ohakune.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendations Andy. We will try and check them out next time we are in New Zealand although I am not sure when that will be when there is a whole world of pies to review!

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