Four Go Mad At The Seaside

So yesterday I went with my sister, mother and girlfriend down to Hastings. My sister, who had a car crash almost two years ago, had an appointment down there to be assessed. They needed to find out if her arm injury was still bad enough for her to be on disability (it is). However, we saw this as a golden opportunity to go have fun down on the coast. I posted an entire album of this trip on my Facebook page. Here's the link to the album, if you wanna see it. Seaside Photos While you are admiring my handiwork, why not friend me at the same time and kill two birds with one stone? You can never have too many friends.

Anyway, as this blog is about food, here's a few pics of stuff we consumed.

First place we ate was in Debenhams department store. There is a cafe on the 2nd floor with a great view of the seafront from the rear windows. That's really the only reason I had for choosing that location to eat, but the food was not bad either. I had the Goan Sweet Potato Curry, which was actually quite nice and spicy. Good job too, as I was getting a cold, and it really helped my sinuses. I'm suffering with it as we speak. Sniff, splutter, cough. "Goan" is the term used to describe people from the Indian state of Goa, by the way.

It came with rice and naan bread.

My Mum and Sis both plumped for the cod and chips, which they tell me was quite tasty, although not quite the same as 'chip shop' cod & chips...

My girlfriend Laura chose the macaroni and cheese, which was lovely and bubbly and had little cherry tomatoes in it too.

All three of the girls chose carbonated drinks, but I was in the mood for a latte, which was jolly good! Yum!

After that, we strolled towards the Old Town part of Hastings, and after a while we stopped at an ice cream parlour and had a '99' each. What is a '99', I hear my American chums asking? Well, I will tell you.

Ice creeeeeamm!!

Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate...

A '99' is a cone of soft-serve or 'Tastee-Freez' ice-cream, with a Cadbury's Flake stuck into it. Simple, but effective. And if you don't know what a Cadbury's Flake is, then I pity you, and you must find one and consume it immediately. Google it if necessary.

There is a definite technique to eating one of these. Everyone has their own, for example Sis likes to push her Flake down into the cone, whereas I lick the ice cream down, eat the Flake, and then nibble around the edges, like so...

Once the edges have been properly nibbled, I bite the tip off the bottom of the cone, and suck the remaining ice cream through, like so...

NOTE: It is possible to do this with regular ice cream too, but you have to suck a LOT harder. Careful you don't make your ears bleed. Don't say I didn't warn you.

After trotting around the Old Town for a couple hours and perusing all the shops, we walked back towards the car, but were momentarily distracted by the smell of fresh donuts...

Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the donuts we purchased, because (a) they went too fast, due to their outright deliciousness, and (b) it is difficult to take a picture with sugary yumminess on your fingers. So, on we continued, again, momentarily distracted by a lovely candy shop:

Fudge!

Which appeared to be a good place for future doctors to study anatomy:

We headed back towards the Priory Meadows shopping centre where the car was located, resolving as we did so to stop in to that fine British institution Marks & Spencer to purchase a bit of grub for the evening meal. I didn't get pics of all we purchased (some yummy quiches included) but I did snap some of our foodie swag:

Jelly babies, the absolute bomb.

Jaffa Cakes, if you need an explanation, are one of the wonders of the modern world. Spongey cakey cookie-ish bit on the bottom, dark chocolate on the top, with an orangey jelly filling. 

Now there two things in here that I need to draw your attention to: first, the bar of Salted Caramel Filled Milk Chocolate - little chocolate squares with a caramel filling, similar to a Cadbury's Caramel (Caramello to you folks across the water) with the exquisite addition of a pinch of sea salt. Like eating a chocolate covered potato chip - without the chip. Secondly, the Chocolate Brownie Dessert which, as you may have guessed, is a chocolate brownie, with a layer of something like a white chocolate mousse/cream thing (delicious, whatever it was), chocolate drizzles, chocolate chips, and - this is the kicker - you see those little round things on the top? Those are little Maltesers (that's Whoppers to my pals from across the pond). Yeah!!! Delish!!