Sunday 26 July 2009

Clarkes Two Pounder!

A Huge 2lb pie, actually weighing in at 33oz, from Clarkes Quality Meats & Country Kitchen, to sample this week. We had sampled their small pies back in May of last year, where they scored a very respectable 8.15. We needed to work up an appetite so we went to Overstrand and parking by the cricket ground, we embarked on a “figure of 8” walk. We started by going east along the High Street that had collapsed into the sea; we then headed inland past the NATS Air Traffic radar and up Hungry Hill and past the Shrieking Pit. We went along the Paston Way to Southrepps, observing the radar dome at Trimmingham, butterflies and a “sleeping” rat. We took lunch at St. James church agreeing that there was no dial to be found! We then made our way by road and footpath to Northrepps, first visiting the church of St. Mary the virgin before visiting the Foundry Arms, open again after being closed for refurbishment. We enjoyed pints of Wherry and Adnams in the garden and were treated to a large bowl of complimentary roast potatoes. Heading north, Don now disguised as a bramble bush, we arrived back at the cars. Since we were not in an ideal spot for pie munching and Gunton was on our way home, we relocated to Gunton Park and invited fellow pie enthusiast, Flounder (AKA Russell), to join us. It was another sawing Sunday at the mill and Flounder had been assisting. We started off with oatcakes, caramelised onion and Moroccan style Houmous. Then the pie was carved, releasing an intense pork aroma and revealing a generous portion of jelly. The flavour was “heaven” and “as good as a pie can get” as two munchers described it, having a wonderful in mouth texture. Mustard did nothing to improve the flavour, just distracting from the experience. The munchers deemed this pie to score a spot on 9 out of 10 with a standard deviation of 0.63246. A shortbread selection completed the gourmet outing.