2/166 Princes Hwy, Ulladulla, NSW
haydenspies.com.au

Away for a long weekend at Lake Conjola on New South Wales’ south coast, I checked out the top eating joints in the area. The number one ranked eatery in the nearest large town of Ulladulla was Hayden’s Pies. And before we left, a work colleague of my wife informed her that while we were down there, we had to try Hayden’s Pies. So naturally we did.

The main strip of Ulladulla is situated running up and over a steep hill from sea level at Ulladulla Harbour. Hayden’s Pies is situated on the site of a large hardware store just over the crest of the hill from the centre of town, the the Princes Highway – or the Princes Pieway as indicated on the sign.

On this Saturday lunchtime it was doing a roaring trade, with the inside and outside tables packed with people. Besides the famous pies in multiple interesting varieties of filling, they had traditional beef sausage rolls and pork and fennel sausage rolls. They also had a small selection of sweet treats, but alas no vanilla slice.

I selected a butter chicken pie with mint yoghurt, and a pork and fennel sausage roll, and Mrs Snot Block & Roll and I retreated around the corner from the hardware store to find a shady spot under a tree to sit and eat. At first glance the sausage roll looked suspiciously like a thin pre-made sausage with a thick slab of pastry simply folded over the top of it, rather than rolled around a nice plump bespoke filling. I was disappointed by the visual appearance, and braced for disappointment on the flavour too.

But appearances were deceiving! A bite revealed a fatter than expected filling, rich and juicy, covered with a light, flaky, buttery pastry that melted in the mouth. The pork mince was well seasoned and had plenty of fennel seeds distributed through it to add that aniseed kick that works so well. There were no other herbs or spices visible in the filling, but it still tasted great. And the rich pastry was delightful too. Together it was a beautiful harmony of mouth watering flavours and textures.

The only down sides were that the vast amount of butter in the pastry made the roll a bit greasy to handle, and that it was a little on the small side. With a little more filling to the same amount of pastry, this would have been truly excellent. (Oh, and the butter chicken pie was really good too! Will have to go back here again.)

Pork and fennel sausage roll: 9/10