A seat at the table: beer and pies

If you have been following Thistles and Kiwis for a while, you might remember previous visits to Wellington on a Plate event Beer No Evil Pie No Evil. With beers from Nelson based Sprig and Fern and pies from Waikanae based Siggy’s Pies, it is a fun and tasty date on the festival calendar.

As usual, there were a couple of new pies (smoked fish, leek and potato and one called blazing saddles) and some special beers (you can see the complete menu below). The beers and pies are perfectly matched for taste and to make just the right accompaniment, and come laid out on a wooden board as you can also see below.

The beers start light, in this case a pilsner, matched with a bacon and egg pie, a good combination. Next up (you have to go from left to right) was the British Best beer, quite a traditional beer, with a peppered steak pie. This was Karl’s favourite combination, and I have to say, one of my favourite beers of the day. Next up came my favourite pie, the new smoked fish variety, which was full of flavour, and definitely my favourite. It went beautifully with its beer match, a New Zealand IPA. At number four, came my least favourite beer, galactic pale ale, with a pie made with chorizo, tomato and black beans with a nice addition of sour cream. By the time I got to number five, I was pretty full, but I do like a small glass of porter now and again and also like the rich and delicious beef, bacon and blue cheese pie.

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The final pie and beer, one of the new pies, two down, three to go

Final verdict? I hope the smoked fish pie becomes a Siggy’s Pies regular. That with the New Zealand IPA was my favourite combination. As ever, it is a fun food and beer event, and for us the walk home was an ‘added bonus’! Footnote: the glasses are tasting size, and pies mini size!

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