Curiosity got the better of me and I had to return to Z for the vegan pie.

This time I brought along another consultant… a vegetable expert.

The grumpy-turned-nice lady that was there last time was now replaced with an unresponsive long-haired boy wearing a cap. He didn’t seem to have the time for chit chat; almost ignoring our pie questions with a weird silence. Mind-you, there was a 1:30pm Tuesday queue of people behind us. His young female assistant kept a watchful eye from the left.

The mission was to grab a Gemma’s pie, which I now see has been repositioned in the case and perhaps rebranded? Maybe the year-long fame Gemma has received for her award winning pie has now expired? Either way, they’ve done away with first names and the sticker now announces that Z are (as they put it) “bringing Mexi back”. For four dollars.

Observation: nothing stands out more than a square pie; but not if it’s hiding behind a huge sticker.

The best part of this day was that I got the chance to share this pie with 3 professionals involved somehow in design. A healthy conversation sprang out of this pie tasting.

The kind of comments I heard were: “Oily, good pastry, salty, spicy, sweet, messy/mushy (tongs burst the crust), an 8 or 9 out of 10, worth $5-6”!

More interesting is the fact that 3 of the 6 “artitecture” people in the room decided to abstain from vegan pie-eating.

I thank my accomplice today, as I thank all of my collaborators, for willingly joining in on short notice. He must have felt quite nervous, dropping his coins at the store, then again dropping his pie piece on the rug at home.