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 1st 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.
