This is a meal served from pie carts in Adelaide and other parts of South Australia for more than 130 years. It consists of a traditional meat pie, covered with tomato sauce and sitting in a plate of thick green pea soup.

Pie Floater (Photographer Craig Anderson)

To make this simple meal, start with a bowl of heated thick pea soup. Then take a hot meat pie and place it face-up in the centre of the bowl. Then smother it in tomato sauce, and consume it quickly, using  a knife and a fork, or a spoon, before it gets cold.

Across the rest of Australia, a similar combination of flavours can be found in a pea pie, which is a meat pie with a layer of mushy peas under the crust.

In 2003, the pie floater was recognised as a South Australian heritage icon by the National Trust of Australia.

One of Australia’s most famous sellers of floaters is Harry’s Café de Wheels, an adapted caravan which was established in a caravan park near the gates of the Woolloomooloo Naval Yard in 1945.

Harry’s is a national icon. It it is known for selling pies, especially with peas.

Harry’s Café de Wheels (Photographer Chris Hancock)

Harry’s Café de Wheels is registered as an Australian heritage icon by the National Trust of Australia.

Read more about Australian food and the recipes that we have grown into as a nation. Australian Flavour – The Story of Australian Cuisine

Australain Flavour - Front Cover

Link to Photographers 

Craig Anderson

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