Sac Pie Travels

Sac Pie was on hiatus after the Pie Day eat-a-thon, looking for pies in tropical places. This was my challenge from my friend Lynn. It was technically infeasible to blog while on the high seas in the Tropic of Capricorn. And to my dismay, there was a paucity of pie in all ports visited.

The best we did was a slice of key lime pie on the good ship Liberty after dinner on Friday night. It was a dainty slice, garnished only with a slice of fresh lime, but still - it's key lime pie. Much, much too sweet, a one-trick pony of a pie. Nobody else at the table even wanted to try it. Or even take a picture.

By now Sac Pie has made our predilections very clear:

- freedom from goo

- freedom from synthetic ingredients

- organic as much as possible

- satisfying as a meal

- fresh and whole-food biased

- naturally sweet as much as possible

- flaky crusts, especially on top

- seasonal fruit biased

So if we check most of those boxes with any pie we sample abroad, we consider the outing a big success. If we check all the boxes, we bring some home for "research." That's what we call it.

The best pie we had in our travels was the guava-cheese empanada at La Carreta (www.lacarreta.com), the bakery side of the Cuban restaurant in the Miami International Airport (terminal D). Two of them for $4.00 was a bargain. The guava paste was layered in with a slice of a cotijo-style cheese in an extremely flaky, egg-glazed turnover. So it had a dual identity as breakfast or dessert (and that is very important). This was the best consolation I have ever had for a long, dreary afternoon in an airport at the end of a tropical vacation. The empanada was so good that it was gone before it could be photographed. It is also the kind of empanada that you have to eat standing up, preferably outdoors or over the sink, because the crackling flakes go everywhere as you take each luscious bite.

La Carreta has a devoted following for their authentic Cuban entrees as well as their bakery. They have seven other restaurants in the Miami area (and not just in Little Havana). You can read reviews online, too; at least one said it's only airport food they ever eat. The fare at La Carreta will make you, probably, want to throw rocks at Au Bon Pain, Sbarro Pizza, and all that other non-food in the airport. In fact it might be worthwhile to fly into Miami just to go to La Carreta! The place was packed all afternoon, and the aromas were intriguing.