You can tell a man that has been to Brighton by the quality of hat he is wearing.

I was there for just over twelve hours but still found the time to find a hat good enough to feel like an old friend less than two days later. We will see if it lasts the summer.

In between buying the hat there was time to go to a place called Hen that was selling nothing but chicken (apart from the halloumi burgers). Given that you would have thought they could have got it right.

A long time ago I went to a place in Madrid that sold nothing but chicken and cider. In my memory it is was an old church and we were all sat on benches and as the the cider was ordered the corks were flipped with a finger high up into the air. The vegetarian amongst us was reassured by the fact that they sold chips as well until it transpired that their version of chips was a packet of crisps.

Back in Hen the chicken came just too quickly to be reassuring. Ordering it I had been given a detailed talk through the difference between the fried and grilled chicken which sounded great. Ten minutes later I was left trying to work out how they would have had time to fit all that in.

And the come Sunday evening we had a barbeque:-

– pork stuffed with fennel chilli and garlic

– chicken marinaded in garlic and lemon

– beans with a tomato vinagrette

– small boiled potatoes with butter and chives

It all seemed to go down quite well.