It’s a cheap treat and a guilty pleasure wrapped in one flaky package. But which pie is Sydney’s best? Terry Durack tucks into his 10 favourites.

The pie is our national dish; an edible symbol of the mysterious, steaming stew that is our collective identity, wrapped in a sunny golden exterior. We love a good pie at the footy, for lunch, after a few too many and when stuck in a misted-up car parked at a scenic site we can’t see for the pouring rain.

Which pie is Sydney's best?

So what’s a good pie? First, the ground rules. We’re talking about meat pies, not chicken, fish or lemon meringue – and definitely nothing with avocado in it, which is against the laws of nature. These are pies you can eat in your hand, standing up at the footy or sitting on a surfboard on the sand. They’re not pretty, they’re not fancy and they’re not chef-y. I don’t care how good Rockpool Bar & Grill’s grass-fed beef and Guinness pie with pea purée is – or the pork and pistachio pies at Blackwattle Cafe, the beef and vegetable pie at Woollahra’s Lord Dudley or Colin Fassnidge’s post-MasterChef steak and kidney pie at Paddington’s Four in Hand. They’re not pie pies.

So what are we left with? Glad you asked.