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New ZealandFlavors · Adelaide
Meat pie served in a deep plate of thick pea soup, usually turned upside down and topped with tomato sauce. It was the dish of the food carts that sold late‑night food in central Adelaide since the 19th century.
Traditional dish from Adelaide, Austrália Meridional
Also known as: pie floaters, floater
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Pie floater — Adelaide, Australia
The pie floater brings together two simple dishes: an Australian meat pie, with puff pastry filled with beef and gravy, and a thick dry pea soup. The pie is placed in the middle of the deep plate, often upside down, and the soup sits around it like a green lake. Tomato sauce is poured on top; some prefer vinegar or Worcestershire sauce. It is eaten with a spoon, breaking the pastry into the soup.
In Adelaide, the dish is linked to the pie carts, horse‑ or hand‑drawn stalls that set up at night in the city centre and sold pies, pasties, chips, and hot food late into the night. Sources place the first carts in the second half of the 19th century, and by the 1880s there were already more than ten in the centre. The best‑known spots were in front of the central post office and on North Terrace beside the railway station. The last regular cart closed in 2010.
The dish’s origin lies in English traditions of pea soup served with dumplings or pastry, which in England were also called floaters, and in the pie and pea suppers of the country’s north. One account credits the pie floater to Ern “Shorty” Bradley, a baker from Port Pirie, a town in the same state, in the 1890s. This is oral tradition; the earliest printed record is a 1914 advertisement for Bradley’s night stall in Port Pirie offering floaters.
In 2003, the National Trust of South Australia included the pie floater in its list of South Australian Heritage Icons. Without the carts, the dish survives in bakeries and in some city pubs, sometimes in more elaborate versions. Sydney also has a version, served from a traditional city street stall.
Adelaide , Austrália Meridional
The pie floater was the dish of the food carts that sold late‑night food in central Adelaide since the 19th century; in 2003 it was listed among South Australia’s heritage icons.
Australian meat pie (puff pastry, beef with gravy) and thick dry pea soup. Topped with tomato sauce; sometimes vinegar or Worcestershire sauce.
In a deep plate, eaten with a spoon while still hot, breaking the pastry into the soup. Tomato sauce goes on top to taste. Traditionally it was late‑night food bought from the city’s pie carts.
A winter and late‑night dish, with no fixed season. Today it can be found year‑round in bakeries and some pubs.
Your questions
A meat pie served in a deep plate of thick pea soup, usually placed upside down and covered with tomato sauce. It is the traditional dish of Adelaide’s night pie carts.
The regular city pie carts no longer operate, but the dish remains in regional bakeries and some pubs. Check before you go, because not all places serve it year‑round.
There is no certainty. One account credits Ern “Shorty” Bradley, a baker from Port Pirie, in the 1890s; the earliest printed record is a 1914 advertisement for his stall. The origin lies in English pea‑soup traditions.
In 2003 the National Trust of South Australia included it in the state’s list of heritage icons, because of its association with Adelaide’s night pie carts since the 19th century.
Flavors of Australia
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