Best Of British

With an abundance of my favourite sweets, this is my favourite place to derail my current health kick. Although there is more than sweets on offer, like condiments– Colman’s English mustard, groceries and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee memorabilia. However, I can’t go past the Bassett’s cherry drops, Galaxy minstrels and ripples, digestive biscuits, and other sugary goodness.
Although I pay a small price for my sugars, due to import taxes etc, it is cheaper than flying to the UK, especially on a student budget.

Finding foods and trinkets that remind you of home is always uplifting and eases the homesickness, fortunately for the Brits that live in Perth they have Best Of British. As the name suggests they stock the stuff you’d probably miss the most from all kinds of yummy food to Jamie Oliver mugs, football merchandise, lovely Peter Rabbit and other B. Potter’s characters and of course merchandise just in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
What interests me the most of course is the food and surprisingly I saw a lot of products that we used to have back home in Mauritius like Vimto and Orangina both carbonated fruit drinks and are just simply yummy, Quality street chocolates, Fruit Gums, Polos and Jelly Tots (now that is a childhood reminder) it seems that I have found a little bit of home myself. They also have a small selection of American treats like Reeses pieces which I simply adore and so much more. Great place for the Brits to reminisce about home, but also for those of you who like to taste and try something new.

This place is full of tacky English souvenirs — think soccer (not football), Paddington Bear and lots of Union Jacks.
I spent the mandatory time living in the UK like most Aussies. I was a little excited to see some favourites from my time: Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, Jaffa Cakes and more. For my many english friends, this place helps stave off the homesickness. The prices aren’t overly cheap, but I suppose importing isn’t a cheap activity, although our dollar is doing very well against the pound at the moment. Staff are super chatty and happy to help.

It sometimes seems like there are more British-​themed speciality stores in Perth than in the rest of the country’s capital cities combined. I sometimes wonder why this is. But not often.
If Perth feels nostalgia for the motherland, let it, and let it enjoy the accoutrements of that nostalgia: imported lollies, soft drinks, shortbreads, and other foodstuffs, postcards from windswept locations in the Hebrides or Yorkshire, and in general the sort of genteel paraphernalia that brings to mind the Thatcherite Britain of the 1980s and the Adrian Mole books rather more than it does the riot-​plagued multicultural melting pot of present-​day Londinium. It’s a ruse, in other words, designed for UK-​obsessives and expatriates. And while that’s all very good and well, it’s not really for me, as I’m neither of those things.