A potentially very interesting pork pie this week: Topping's Family Pork Pie - "Finest Yorkshire pork encased in a traditional shortcrust pastry". Interesting, as after I had purchased the two pies in ASDA, I spotted beneath the price ticket "contains 50% Beef and 20% Chicken"! The store assistant was as baffled as I and could not offer any explanation. The ASDA Service Team has confirmed this to be an error that has now been rectified. Before we could sample Yorkshire’s finest pork (or Beef and Chicken) we had six miles to yomp. The Walk Master took us to Morton to enjoy a stroll along the coast towards Stiffkey. This was no stroll for the Pie Master and his mawther as Sabre, who joined us on the
10th May, was in our care! We headed inland and crossed the very pleasant Cockthorpe Common and into the village. We headed for
All Saints church, where we ate lunch and Sabre exercised his vocal chords, encouraging all other dogs in the vicinity to do likewise!
Lunch consumed and no scratch dials found, we headed back
through the village and then towards the coast along the perimeter track of a disused airfield. After pausing to take in the great
panoramic views and the dots on Blakeney Point that were seals, we headed east along Love Lane.
While walking this track we observed a roe deer hoss across the field to the north, heading for the Common. We followed the track north, spotting a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting, as we turned. We then took a track east, that would lead to Binham Lane, that should have taken us to the pub, but it was now closed. We continued on to Langham Road and an unscheduled visit to
All Saints church, Morston. Finding no scratch dials, we headed for the Anchor Inn. Here we had a good scheme of splitting the round into cars: Ricky went in to order and Josie went in to see what beer was available and said to Ricky they have Winter’s Golden,
Green King IPA & Speckled Hen and exited to inform me. The over eager barmaid took this to be an order, producing a pint of Winter’s Golden and a pint of Green King IPA. Further confusion and the two rounds merged into one, the barmaid not hearing the repeated requests for shandys to be made with Winter’s Golden and using IPA – obviously on commission from Green King. Most of us enjoyed the Winter’s Golden while Ricky had to make do with a pint of IPA. We then made our way to the cars parked at the National Trust car park. First the Canapé: Oat cake and carrot sticks to dip into lemon & coriander Houmous, sour cream with chives, Guacamole and Vine ripened tomato salsa! Next Topping's Family Pies: slicing revealed a nice pink filling, rather lacking texture, with a good helping of jelly. A faint fresh aroma could be detected if one got in close. The pie disappointed, the pie crust being soft and the filling being very salty. This pie was judged to score 6.15 out of 10 with a standard deviation of 0.91439. To complete the feast, rather warm, dark chocolate & ginger Florentines to supplement the Shortbread. So a normalised 6 for Topping’s pies.
A new pie this week: Millers of Dorset, established 1937 – where do we keep finding them? Somerfield this week, reduced to a pound a pie, down from £1.49! Before we could munch said bargains, the pre-pie yomp had to be completed. 14 of us set off northwards from the church car park at West Somerton and bearing right reached Winterton Ness and Bishy-barney-bee beach! They were crawling all over the sand. Strolling south-east down the coast with many beautiful dogs enjoying the sand and sea, we paused to eat our sandwiches in the dunes, while some elected to go for a swim first and caught site of a seal swimming near to land. Bishy-barney-bees were not the only uninvited guests to our picnic - hundreds of hoverflies had joined them too. Retreating from the beach at Winterton-on-Sea, we sort sanctuary at the Fishermans Return and pints of Wherry and Winter's Revenge.
Following footpaths east, we came upon a garden where a lady was taking a bath – a work of art that was one of many, including a tin can sculpture that Don appreciated. 
Returning to the church of St. Mary, we crossed grass fields with scores of rabbits, all hossing to shelter, when they spotted us. The church was closed due to ongoing refurbishment. The scratch dial, previously photographed was still there, beneath a window. Tea and nairn’s mini oatcakes with Tapenade and supreme taramasalata started this week’s feast. The rather dull looking pies were then cut, releasing no aroma. The pies had a smooth pale pink filling that looked like luncheon meat with no jelly. The tasting proved worse than the aesthetic, the pastry being lardy and the filling worse than tasteless – mustard could not rescue this pie. Surprisingly, some munchers did not find it so bad and it scraped in with a score of 3.95833 with a standard deviation of 0.63246. Thankfully there were better flavours to consume: Chocolate and Cherries, Maple syrup & pecan galettes and shortbread! So a normalised score of 4 for Millers of Dorset.
