The palusami pie that’s captivating the South

Everyone loves a hearty pie during the cold New Zealand winter, and almost everyone has a highly recommended go to spot.

With the annual New Zealand Bakels Supreme Pie Awards just around the corner, bakeries across the motu are preparing their best pastries in hopes of winning the coveted top award.

One South Island bakery returning to the competition this year is Nelson’s Gloucester's Bakehouse, featuring their latest mouthwatering creation, the palusami pie.

Bakery owner Andy Ly, who is of Cambodian and Chinese descent, says his customers and a NZ Bakels representative, Terry, have described his palusami pies as “diamonds in the rough” and encouraged him to enter them into the pie awards.

“It's something that’s not common down South. I'm not sure how many areas Terry covers, but he said ‘nobody's doing it in the top three quarters of the South Island’,” Ly tells PMN News.

“We had really good reviews on it. I think for the month of May, when we first launched it, we became the number one rated pie on the Mean Pies app.”

The palusami pies have quickly gained attention. On launch day, the bakehouse made 80, but word spread fast, and by day two, they had produced 120 with 200 more orders. By the end of day three, they surpassed 300 pies.

For two weeks straight, Ly averaged 300-400 palusami pies daily, and now two months after the launch, it has become their most popular pie, surpassing Kiwi staples like steak and cheese and mince and cheese.

The pie has received glowing reviews online. One user on the Mean Pies app highly recommended the pie, calling it “The GOAT”, while another says it’s “even better than traditional palusami”.

“One of the best pies I have ever had, perfect amount of all ingredients,” wrote reviewer Carlitaltorres.

“Hearty and tastes exactly, even better than traditional palusami. I would rate it more than a 10.”

Ly recently visited various bakeries in Tāmaki Makaurau that bake palusami pies, evaluating his creations as “a little bit better” than the ones he tasted.

‘The caviar of the islands’

Ly grew up with many Pacific friends and tasted palusami through his Sāmoan friends.

After initial trials with the basic ingredients - corned beef, taro leaves, coconut cream, and onions - Ly aimed to improve the flavour profile by mixing various spices from his Asian background.

“It's completely different to what I'd expect to be in a pie,” he says.

“There’s no complexity to the whole overall dish. But for me, I wanted to take the next step. I feel like with Asian cooking, we do a lot of balancing our flavors.

“Asian cooking is all about sweet, salty, spicy, and sour. So we balance the sweetness and the saltiness all together by incorporating our spices into the corned beef and the palusami mix on top.”

A Sāmoan friend of Ly’s questioned the source of his corned beef. Ly replied that his butcher had given him a “good deal” on corned silverside.

“He was like, ‘wait, what? nah man, if you do that, we're going to stop being friends’,” Ly says.

Ly was adamant that canned corned beef was too low a quality to use but his mate persuaded him with stories of taking 20 cans back to his family in the Sāmoa.

“He said, ‘this is real, this is like the caviar of the islands’.”

Baking is in the blood

Ly has a true passion for baking, and the bakery business is a family tradition. His parents have owned a bakery for 20 years, his grandfather is a retired bakery owner, and his aunt and uncle recently opened their own shop.

After losing his job as a licensed pilot during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ly found his way back into the family legacy. He opened Gloucester’s Bakehouse in 2022 and says, “I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now.”

Nelson Boys' College students extend their lunch break for the palusami pies. Photo/Gloucester's Bakery Facebook

Uniting people with one bite

Gloucester’s Bakehouse has loyal customers who regularly visit for their baked goods, with some even pre-ordering from Marlborough Sound. Ly says his palusami pies are attracting more than just Pacific customers.

Ly’s mother and wife think Kiwi pies are “too rich for their Asian palates”, and yet his Palusami pastries have swayed their opinions.

“I’ve got customers who have never heard of palusami before trying them. One guy has been coming for two years. He gets a steak and cheese pie, day in and day out. Now he buys a palusami and a steak and cheese," Ly says

“My customers are all sorts, police, firemen, school students, neighbours, and they’re Pacific Islanders, Asian, and Kiwi European.

“My Pacific Island friends I went to primary school with…they’ve grown up, had kids and got married…I’m seeing them after 20 years over a palusami pie.”

Ly believes that while “people will always pay for a good pie”, a great pie offers more than just a snack or break. “A good pie creates memories because it comes from memories”.