Pie floater

The pie floater is a meat pie turned upside-down in a bowl of thick pea soup. It is traditionally served with tomato sauce, but other accompaniments are Worcestershire sauce or vinegar. It is believed that the origins of the pie floater lie in the English dishes of pea soup with eel, suet dumplings or saveloys. Dumplings in soup were known as 'floaters'. Pie floaters are eaten on the street, served from pie carts - caravans pulled into position around 7 o'clock in the evening dishing up pies and pasties, hot chips, doughnuts and other hot, and often greasy, foods to fill late night rumbling stomachs. The most famous pie cart and the longest-serving eating venue in South Australia stands outside the General Post Office in Franklin Street. Adelaide's first pie cart was established in 1871 and between 1915 and 1942 there were nine around the city.