on the topic of tomato sauce

after my daring luch yesterday, i decided to go simple today and order a plain beef pie. And when asked if i wanted sauce, I said sure, plain beef pie by itself does not give much to talk about, but the topic of australian tomato sauce, now that is a blog entry. now if an australian offers you tomato sauce, which they pronounce with a soft 'a' as do the british, what they really mean is "ketchup" and if you want some actual tomato sauce, you will have to ask for "Marinara." all this aside, tomato sauce (and by that i mean ketchup) goes surprisingly well on meat pie. the high vinegar flavor complements any savory filling incredibly. the flakiness of the crust with the acidity of the vinegar is a bit weird, but if you can get used to meat pastry, you can get used to anything. most places have tomato or barbecue sauce for 20c extra, which was a bit strange for me with the ubiquity of the ketchup dispencer at nearly every fast food joint in the US, but it's worthe the extra change.