Spanish Delights

A dozen pie munchers set off to Tivetshall St. Margaret on an extremely hot day, to sample Spanish delicacies brought back by José Luis. It was a pre-arranged no pie day, much to the Fuhrer’s delight! But first we needed to work up an appetite. So, leaving the cars parked at the community centre we headed north, and then west to the church of St. Margaret, visited on previous walks. The church was undergoing remedial work and covered in scaffolding. Continuing east and enjoying the numerous gliders circling overhead and also a buzzard. We were to have crossed the railway line by footpath, but finding it so overgrown as to be impassable, we had to detour by road. On reaching Gissing Common, we headed south, spotting several dozen broken egg shells along the path. Passing by Gissing Manor we eventually reached the welcome shade afforded by St. Mary’s church, Gissing. Here we ate our sandwiches before enjoying its marvellous hammerbeam roof. Outside we found a fine example of a scratch dial to add to our collection. I also liked the cast iron “grave stone” in the churchyard. Having eaten and viewed the church, we made our way over the road to the Crown for pints of various styles of beer from Adnams, in excellent condition. Refreshed and after pausing to view a vintage Fordson tractor, parked in a local’s front garden, we set off on a revised route back to the cars. Having our way over the railway line blocked earlier, the Walk Master thought it prudent to make a change to the planned walk. The footpath chosen took us passed a field with horses that watched as we tried to find the route across a clearing with a ditch running through it. Eventually we found our path and after walking through woods, we ended up is someone’s back garden! The lady of the house said we’d been following deer tracks. She kindly took us back to the horses and directed us on to the footpath. Now about a mile slog east, in ever-increasing heat, drinking the remains of our now, hot water, we made it back to the cars for tea. José Luis laid out a fine spread on the picnic tables provided and we consumed these wonderful tastes of Spain in Spanish weather along with Rosemary bread, baked by Margaret. Having given the feast eleven out of ten, we then had our traditional Scottish Shortbreads after which we made our way home, with the car indicating an outside temperature of 27º C.

Icarus Hines, small pork pies

Small pies from Icarus Hines, purchased from his shop in Cromer were the focus of our munching this week. We have sampled his small pies once before on June 1^st 2008, when they were purchased from his shop in Sheringham. We headed to Blickling, so that we could enjoy the bluebells in the woods. We parked in the car park by Buck’s Common and then walked with Bert and Harris, through Bunker’s Hill plantation seeing swathes of English bluebell, including a few albino examples. We then followed the path by the Great Wood and into Blickling Park, where we walked around the lake spotting a reed warbler and a grebe diving for food in the lake. As we headed back to the hall, we noted the water tower to our left. We then followed the ha ha around the hall’s gardens with the rhododendrons in bloom, and passed the splendid front of the hall to the picnic to the west. Here we consumed our sandwiches before the short stroll to the Buckinghamshire Arms, where we passed up the Adnams to sample Lupus Lupus – the seasonal beer from the Wolf brewery. After enjoying this fine pint, we headed back past the hall and to St. Andrew’s church. The church was open today, so we were able to see the fine brasses – on previous visits, the church had been locked. From here we headed south along Silvergate Lane before we headed west on the last leg of the walk, passing through Long Plantation and passed the Tower - the second Earl of Buckinghamshire's race stand. Finally a short walk through Buck’s Common concluded our appetiser. Prawns with tartare sauce provide by King Canape was the first course, then followed the pies and a tortilla cooked by José Luis. First the pies,

good looking and when sliced revealed a pink filling with a very little jelly and low on aroma. The pastry was crumbly and too thick for some – perhaps because of the high crust to filling ratio that is inevitable with small pies. The filling was a disappointment to me, not bad, but below expectations, others found it to their liking, resulting in a score of 7.22222 with a high standard deviation of 1.06393. The tortilla was very tasty and I think we all agreed on that. Finally, just to ensure we didn’t go hungry, the Walk Master provided Scottish Shortbreads. So a normalised score of 7 for Icarus Hines compared to a score of 8 on their last outing.

Norfolk pork pies win national award

Samphire pork pies, last sampled by the pie munchers back on the 11^th March 2007, have won an award for their pork pies. The report carried by the Norwich Evening News may be viewed by clicking here. I think it's time we sampled them again... Well done Jeff and Karen Nethercott.

Crestwood "Crispy Bake" Pork Pies

This week the Pie Master had forgotten to purchase pork pies! Late Saturday afternoon, Josie realised we had no pies to munch, so the Pie Master hopped on his bike and hossed down to the Local Aldi in the rain. We had sampled their Crestwood “crispy bake” pies back in 2006, on the 16^th July, when they scored a mere 5 out of ten, hopefully they’d improved. We headed over the border into the wilds of Suffolk for this week's sampling, passing a procession of Bubble cars coming in the opposite direction, along Herringfleet Road. Parking at Somerleyton railway station, we headed back up Station Road to then walk through Wadding Wood and then by footpath to Blundeston Road and the picturesque parish church of St. Mary, Somerleyton. Finding no scratch dials, we continued along Blundeston Road, accompanied at one point by a low flying Douglas DC-3 'Dakota', before we returned to footpaths. Then walking along a short stretch of road we passed a 1652 barn. Lunch was taken at 3¼ miles, in the church porch of St. Margaret, the parish church of Herringfleet, in front of it's Norman doorway. We found no scratch dials on this church, any having been covered by nasty rendering. Continuing along Herringfleet Road we came upon a pretty White flower, identified by Josie as “Star of Bethlehem” – the Führer thought it might have been Edelweiss – she would! Leaving the road we took a footpath towards the marshes finding two types of fungi, one unidentified and the other “Sulphur tufts”. Turning towards Herringfleet drainage mill, with Raveningham water tower in the distance, the Walk Master thought he spotted a lion running across the marshes, but it turned out to be a large dog! Arriving at the mill, we were just in time to see volunteers get the mill working. After pausing and having a mardle, we set off east. Walking along the bank, meeting lovely dogs, we arrived at the Duke's head for pints of Adnams and Wherry all in good condition. The short walk back to the railway station, through a boatyard, was made a little longer due to some deliberate misinformation from one of the boat owners. Returning to the cars, we first sampled “Healthy Selection” Houmous and Spicy red pepper Houmous with Black olive crackers. Then on to the pies... When they were sliced, they released virtually no aroma, but the filling looked good despite no jelly. Unfortunately these ‘Crispy Bake’ pies had a soft crust, though it was tasty, which is more than can be said for the filling. This was bland and had no texture, certainly needing the application of mustard. The pies did marginally better this outing scoring 5.375 with a standard deviation of 0.41726. Thankfully the Walk Master’s Scottish Shortbreads were up to their usual high standard. So a normalised 5.5 for Crestwood’s so called “crispy bake” pies.

Waitrose Large Melton Mowbray pie

Eight pie munchers, plus Bert and Harris, headed for Aldborough to sample a large Melton Mowbray pie from Waitrose, last sampled on the 3^rd February 2008. From the green, we headed off westwards and then through a rapeseed field. The pre pie walk then headed south after about a mile and a half, mostly following footpaths along field boundaries. A stretch of quiet road walking followed by a short footpath brought us to St. Andrew’s church, Wickmere for lunch in the porch, at 3.75 miles. The single, upside down scratch dial on a buttress had been previously photographed an added to the collection last month. Leaving this church we headed eastwards back to Aldborough, stopping at its parish church of St. Mary the Virgin. Here we found one scratch dial on the west of the porch, but failed to find the second, to the east of the chancel door, we subsequently gleaned from the church guide. Leaving the church, and having a good look in the window of an antique shop, we returned to the green and decided to sample beer at the Black Boys, where we consumed pints of Adnams. Returning to the cars we sampled Spicy red lentil dip and Jalapeño Houmous with Celery Oval Alberts! The “comfortably reposed pie” was sliced releasing a pleasant aroma. The interior revealed a chunky pink filling and a little jelly. Portions of pie were then consumed after a slug of tea to restore the palate. This was an excellent pie finding favour with all munchers, coming in with a high average score of 8.5625 and a low standard deviation of 0.41726. Scottish Shortbreads completed today’s grazing. So Waitrose improved upon their previous score of 7.5 with a normalised score of 8.5.

Roll mouse over picture to see uncut pie

G. Morris & Sons small pies

Nine pie munchers mustered in rather overcast conditions, then headed south west to Ashill to sample a trio of small pies from G. Morris & Sons. The weather turned decidedly wet during the journey. However, as we arrived at the community centre at twelve O'clock, the rain stopped as predicted on the weather forecast! After ascertaining that we would not get locked in, we set off westwards, on a non-crossing figure-of-eight walk. Our first stop was at the church of St. Mary, Houghton-on-the-hill, by a field of black cows and calves. Finding no scratch dial, we continued on to South Pickenham, taking in a short stretch of the Peddar’s Way and the Norfolk Coast Path, then crossing the clear waters of the River Wissey on the way. Here we took lunch at the church of All Saints, with it's north facing porch and no scratch dial. Four gents took up residence on the seat in the shade, looking like a scene from "Last of the Summer Wine",while the rest of us perched on the church wall in the sun. We left the church for a half mile walk along a quiet road, passing Pickenham Hall, where we no doubt became movie stars on the closed circuit surveillance system! From here we made our way back to Ashill, our route taking us past a field of young rapeseed plants whose leaves had collected large water droplets from the earlier rain. Three and a half scratch dials were found at St. Nicholas church, Ashill - well three definite dials and one possible. We had hoped to have a pint at the "White Hart" but it was undergoing refurbishment, so we pressed on back to the cars, pausing by the pond to see the ducklings. In fact there were ducks in many of the gardens too. Today's feast: peppers stuffed with goats cheese, again were the first course, but the peppers were much hotter than last week. The pies, baked in foil cups, were sliced, no aroma or jelly being present. The pies had a crisp crust with a smooth meat filling, the latter not having a great deal of flavour. The pie munchers had widely differing views on these pies, from a lowly score of 4 to high scores of 9's - resulting in the average score of 6.77778 with a very high standard deviation of 1.58333. Organic Scottish Shortbreads then followed. Finally, chocolate "Munchers" were provided for the pie munchers.
It was then decided that we should head on to the “White Hart” at Hingham for refreshment, with a stop at Saham Toney to check out the church. The church of St. George failed to yield further scratch dials, so we headed for Hingham. At the “White Hart” we enjoyed pints of Tolly Phoenix and Morland Original Bitter where we took over the salubrious lounge, after making friends with Boris and Charlie, two springer spaniels, in the bar.

Meet Svinjski Sudal

Following our walk, Don presented the Pie Munchers with a mascot: A porcelain pig - Svinjski Sudal, to see fair play. It is intended that all future pork pie images on the web site will include Svinjski Sudal, to reduce the risk of pork pie picture piracy.