NEAROF

In honour of the American election happening tomorrow, I thought I’d do my neighbourly best by marking the occasion with that most relevant of British treats, Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake. The Pitch: There’s a back story on the wrapper that puts all other “X-TREEM!” snack treat marketing to shame. “Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake was carried [...]

Another week, and another mission to my amazing neighbourhood U.K. import shop, British Pantry. So many boxes brimming with temptations, both sweet and savoury, yet so little time/treasure. This trip, I brought back a small bag of Cadbury BiscBits, a treat I’d never met before, that featured the tantalizing “NEW” in a banner on the [...]

Maybe I’m just an oblivious schlub from the colonies, but I’d never heard of Battenberg cake until my boss mentioned it during a conversation about the wonderful things to be found at UK import shops. The way it was described, it sounded like a wonderful blend of flavours: sponge cake plus marzipan plus apricot jam. [...]

While ambling about in the Scottish highlands roughly a decade ago, I learned of the glories of both Scottish tablet and Orkney fudge, both crazy-sweet, super delicious confections that still remind me of train trips past shaggy-looking cattle and rocky fields of squishy heather. When I visit Scottish import shops, it’s one of the treats [...]

I can’t get enough of British Pantry, a great little British import shop in northwest Calgary. A couple of months ago, I asked them if they could bring in coconut ice, one of my favourite childhood treats. They told me they’d look into it, but I assumed they wouldn’t be able to track any down. [...]

Part of the fun of moving to a new city is exploring a whole new retail landscape. On a recent stroll through a strip mall in northwest Calgary, I stumbled across an amazing little U.K. import shop called British Pantry. True to the name, it’s packed full of delicious sweets and treats from Great Britain, [...]

Another jolly good find in the new British import section at Hub Cigar in Edmonton. Shortbread is one of my guilty pleasures (I usually make a big batch around Christmas), and I have a soft spot for organics. Easy sell. The Look: Considering the number of shortbread tins and packages that have a Scottish motif, [...]

Of all the fruit beer flavours you’re likely to come across, banana is far from the most common. I’ve sampled tons of raspberry beers, some blackberry beers, apple beers, peach beers, apricot beers, cherry beers, blackcurrant beers and passion-fruit/mango beers, but Wells’ Banana Bread beer is only the second banana beer I’ve run across – [...]