1. Being palm-sized means...
You can surreptitiously, yet easily, eat it during meetings while pretending to cough. 's are our pick, with a just-right buttery pastry — not too dry but not too flaky to leave telltale crumbs in your moustache or on your shirt._0.jpg?imwidth=1280)
2. It's a great way to teach kids geometry (and yourself, too)
Today's lesson: which type of triangle are these (from )? Isosceles, equilateral or scalene?
3. And a very sneaky way to make kids like fruit — just wrap it in pastry
4. It's a three-bite, single-serve wonder
You'll never have to fill up on bread again thanks to this Serve these high-rollers for breakfast or brunch alongside your poached eggs and your toast will be looking on in jealousy.
Moroccan lamb and pine nut cigars Source: Alan Benson
5. It's difficult to fry a whole regular-sized pie
But not these (below) from .
Or this Brazilian pasteis filled with guava paste (below) from . Who doesn't love deep-fried sweet dough?
Source: Mark Roper
6. Party pies were invented for a reason
Passing around a platter of regular-sized meat pies at parties is heavy. Upgrade the frozen version with 's easy filled with green olives and sultanas.
7. Every bite is the perfect pastry-to-filling ratio
An important consideration when you've invested elbow grease into making Shane Delia's flaky pide dough for .
8. Think of a hand pie as a meat-filled candy
Addictive. And you can't just stop at one. Pop these Lebanese baharat-spiced beef and pine nut pies, called in your mouth.
Beef, baharat and pine nut pies (sambousik) are Lebanon's equivalent to the Aussie meat pie. Source: Alan Benson
9. You can add booze to the dough
Take a leaf out of the Brazilian playbook and add cachaça (a Brazilian spirit distilled from sugarcane) to your dough for these (pastels de camarão). host says, "cachaça will help the dough 'bubble' up and get crisp during frying." And the rest of the bottle comes in handy to make to go with your pastels, too, of course.
10. You can show off your crimping style
Argentinians have perfected the crimp (or repulgue) when it comes to , with a "crimp code" for various fillings so you'll never mix up your humita (top left) from your jamon y queso (bottom right).
Recipe and image from Argentinian Street Food, Enrique Zanoni & Gaston Stivelmaher (Murdoch Books, $29.99, hbk)
11. And for those who are too lazy to crimp ...
Or even to fold, enjoy 's , which are light on the pastry — a bonus for those cutting down on carbs.
When you need something no-fuss but nourishing to eat on the go. Then prepare your 
Tortilla hand pies Source: Donna Hay
12. You can do away with pie tins
Go freeform with these popular Lebanese lamb-filled street snacks called from .
Source: SBS Food
13. Even ditch making pastry — cheat and use storebought
Use up all your leftover meat, and have party snacks ready in under an hour!
Think outside the short-crust square and use spring roll pastry for a shatteringly satisfying shell, as with these (below) from .
Or filo pastry, as we have to make (below) from .
And there's always fancy pants puff when you need to impress. Wrap puff around our yabby and truffle filling in these (below) from — who says store-bought can't be sexy?
Best Homemade Mini Meat Pie Source: Melissa Darr
Source: Murdoch Books
14. You're hand-span challenged
Then these are for you: is a filled thin bread pocket typical of Puglia, the most traditional filling being tomato and mozzarella. Small, deep-fried, addictive!
Panzerotti (fried dough pockets) Source: Paola Bacchia
15. Or you have well-endowed hands
16. You can't afford plates or cutlery
Then a hand pie is your best friend, and you'll probably want to check out the rest of our .
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