Sweeney Todd. It’s all his fault. If I had not met Sweeney Todd, I would not have bought the DVD and would not have this craving for meat pies. It’s an arduous task looking for delicious meat pies in Brunei, especially those resembling the pies featured in Sweeney Todd.

For your information, Sweeney Todd is a (fictional?) man who lived in 18th Century London, working as a barber. Basically he shaves people and such. He has psychopathic tendencies however, and sometimes kills his clients by slitting their throats with a razor blade. No one ever finds out because he’ll always take the meat off the victims’ bones, pack them up and gives them as a present to his lady “friend”, who happened to operate “the best pie shop in London”.

So in the movie, all blood and gory aside (no matter how graphic), this pie shop would be featured frequently, and the lady friend would be all kneading dough, or making the filling, and people would be buying the pies and eating them, and exclaiming how delicious the pies are. I’ll be all drool drool yum yum.
Ever since watching the movie, I have been craving for meat pies! I’ve tried those in Coffee Zone, the only place I know that has meat pies, but they were disgusting. I tried making my own but while my steak and mushroom stew ended up being delicious filling, my puff pastry had pretty much the consistency of…. kuih mur. I don’t know anywhere else that served meat pies in Brunei that in my desperation: I WENT TO MIRI.

There is this place, called Dave’s Deli, which I’ve been reliably told, sells meat pies, smothered in gravy. Unfortunately, when I went to Miri, it was closed, and was undergoing some sort of renovation work so I came home empty handed. =(

Yesterday, however, my parents with some uncles and aunts went to Miri to visit some grand-relatives. Apparently Dave’s Deli is now open for business! I didn’t actually asked them to but since they remembered how disappointed I was the last time I went there, they tapau-ed for me 2 meat pies, 2 chicken pies and 2 generous servings of delicious gravy!

We haven’t had these in a while no?

Meat pie

The meat pie was exactly as I’ve imagined! Except that the pastry has been a bit soggified due to intense transportation stress and microwavation. My parents actually brought them home last night but because I was bursting full from attending a friend’s open house, I left them overnight in the fridge.

Meat pie at 45 degrees angle. Yes that is a bite mark.

This is after I’ve nuked the pie for 30 seconds. The smell was amazing! Again, the pastry was a bit soggified, but I could imagine that they were probably gorgeous if I had eaten them as soon as I’ve ordered!

Gravified

The way to eat these pies was supposedly by smothering them in a rich brown gravy. The gravy was delicious and they packed for us  2 containers with extremely generous servings! I’m probably going to keep one, and use it later to eat mashed potatoes. YUM!

Innards

I apologise that the innard shot is not that attractive. The filling was generous so that it was practically bursting out. The meat chunks were giant sized! I do prefer meat chunks in pies instead of the minced variety. The filling was basically, carrots, potatoes and meat chunks, sauted with garlic and onions. Simple, but definitely yummy. An improvisation they may consider is adding mushrooms into the filling. I wasn’t expecting mushrooms with the pie, but when wolfing it down this morning, I kept on thinking that adding mushrooms would have given the pie an extra kick!

Chicken pie at 45 degrees before microwavation

The chicken pie box was labelled “chix”. So I didn’t have to bite into each pie to know whether it’s chicken or meat/beef (unfortunately!). Like the Meat Pie, the chicken pie also had a somewhat soggified pastry casing.

Chicken Pie at higher than 45 degrees after microwavation

After nuking them in the microwave, the pastry shrunk a bit in the middle. That also happened with the Meat Pie. Again, judging from the flaky layers I can see that this would have been gorgeous when eaten straight from the oven at the Deli!  Dave’s Deli should seriously consider coming to Brunei (or I should consider going to Miri again).

Gravifying the pie with my fat sausage-like fingers

I do feel the process of pouring gravy over food to be rather therapeutic. I believe it is because after that the food being poured on would always taste better. Oh gravy, what can I do without you?

Innards

The pie was fuuuuull of chicken shreds, even more than the meat pie was full of meat chunks. They were as were the meat pies, filled with chicken shreds, sauted with potato, carrots, onions and garlic. Definitely delicious but I still prefer chicken pie with a creamy quiche-y like filling, with corn and peas instead. So I have to say that I definitely enjoyed the meat pie more than the chicken pie.

I definitely would be going to Miri again one of these days to visit Dave’s Deli. I need to know what the pies taste like straight out of the oven!