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Tasmania’s Scallop Pies – Australian Culinary Legends

Tamara Sheward discovers gourmet seafood in old-fashioned Tasmanian pies.

Tasmanian bush bashers and old clunkers still bear the motto “The Holiday Isle” on their licence plates, but as far as I’m concerned, this is simply because “The Isle On Which To Get Morbidly Obese Yet Wonderfully Happy While Chowing Down On Scallop Pies” is a touch prolix for a 37cm metal square.

While our smallest state is rightfully renowned for its abundance of gawking spots and outdoorsy good times, it’s these golden parcels of gelatinous joy that have me drooling every time I hear the words “Hobart flight now boarding”.

A bundle of buttery pastry, mornay sauce, a sprinkling of curry and, of course, the eponymous scallops, the pies tick all the “taste of Tassie” boxes: clever use of fresh, local seafood. Dairy-rich. Fattening as hell. They’re also a culinary comment on the Taswegian character itself: idiosyncratic, quirky and just a little bit cantankerous.

One can imagine a woolly, apple-cheeked fisherman insisting on that curry dash — and it MUST be Keen’s — just to piss off the purists (“NO NO NO!” wrote my father, a gourmand if there ever was one, when I gleefully wrote to tell him of my discovery). And bewildered foodies, take note: despite the incongruous (and ingenious) ingredients, justify the oddity as “fusion” cuisine at your peril.

Local lore has it that Tassie’s pie tradition evolved in the early 1800s, when scallops were sold for a shilling a bucket on the Hobart wharves. And the curry? Not to cast any aspersions, but there are whispers that ye olde pub cooks added the spice as it made munchers all the more thirsty…

Virtually unheard of on the mainland, scallop pies are blessedly sold across Tasmania — it’s a rare café, market or wind-buffed stall that doesn’t have their own take on the treat. And for those who want to eat their pie and have it (later) too, various shops around the state sell bake-your-own versions that could easily survive a flight home in a chill-bag.

Hobart’s Island Markets — an off-the-radar bazaar selling everything from toilet roll dolls to handmade chilli chocolate — is a great place to start, with regular specials on family (or glutton)-sized pies at a laughable $10 a pop. Just don’t let the staff catch you taking incredulous photos of their price-tags: I was unceremoniously shown the door after my excited snapping attracted the attention of a hot-blooded security guard. Hmmm. Must be all that curry…

Island Markets: Gormanston Road, Moonah (Hobart). Open Wednesday – Sunday, 9am – 6pm for edibles and potables, Friday – Sunday, 9am – 4pm for arts, crafts and heaps more. islandmarkets.com.au

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