So many restaurants, so little time!

Just as in April, our few weeks back in Sussex is packed with meet-ups!

Dave and I at The Taj Mahal, Bexhill 

I'm going to blog about the places we have been to this week, but this is definitely more of a foodie post than one of travel tips. The photo, taken by our friend Steve Royston, is of us at The Taj Mahal in Bexhill yesterday evening where we went to dine with both Steve and Frances. It's always great to catch up with them and swap travel experiences and suggestions. Their northern England trip didn't coincide with ours timewise, although they also went to Whitby. Frances recommended Brimham Rocks which I have googled this morning and Steve, a massive Beatles fan, enthusiastically described the Lennon and McCartney childhood houses in Liverpool. In return, we suggested the Cinema Museum in Almeria, in the house where Lennon stayed while filming How I Won The War.

The Taj Mahal serves good Indian cuisine with a wide range of freshly prepared dishes and there's an excellent deal on Sundays and Thursdays: a starter, main, veggie side and rice-or-naan for £10.95 per head. Plus it's a bring-your-own alcohol establishment so that saves money too. However, for non-drinkers, I can recommend the sweet lassi yoghurt drink which is delicious. My Satkora Dhansak was very good and the lemon really gave the sauce a lift. The only problem was that there was far too much to eat - fortunately foil takeaway containers were at the ready.

Wednesday lunchtime we took advantage of the Senior Citizens deal at the Eight Bells in Bolney. We met up with friends Dave and Margaret who are real music aficionados. None of us actually knew about the lunchtime deal until we arrived and the staff nervously asked if we had booked. We hadn't. Fortunately we arrived on the dot of noon and there was just one four-seat table left. The pub was packed. Ordering from 'the pink menu' means a main and a dessert are about half price - £6.50 and £3.50 respectively - and there's a pretty good choice, plus all the full priced options too. (The waitress let me choose from 'pink' too which was kind.) My veggie quiche was tasty with good thick cut chips, but Dave wasn't overly impressed with his Hog Roast Pie. The double cooking meant the meat had lost most of its texture. As the lunch was to be our main meal of the day, I had a winter warming Toffee Apple Bread Pud too - with proper hot vanilla custard!

On Monday evening The Cajun Dawgs were the guest band at White Horse Folk in Bodle Street Green. We hadn't seen them for months so pootled out there. The pub has changed hands again since the last time we were there and is now all painted white inside which makes it feel much bigger. I wasn't sure how the Dawgs music would fit into the White Horse as I think of them as a dance band, but their acoustic setup sounded great and it was good to have a catch-up chat with everyone as well as a bit of a jig about.

On a different note, I got an email a few days ago letting me know that a

short film I helped to fund is complete and ready for viewing. Compassion In World Farming are asking people all over the world Who Do You See In The Mirror? It's a great way to share the #EndTheCageAge message and fun to see my name in the credits too. I've included the YouTube below so please do take a minute to watch and share. (The film isn't full of distressing images.)