Tuesday 31 August 2010

The Star Rock Shop

Well, this is nothing to do with gardening, and everything to do with my addiction to sweets.  However, I found the most perfectly retro, intact sweet shop from days gone by.
There were jars of sweets that I haven't seen since childhood.  I didn't even know half of these still existed?
They make their own sweets as well.  The speciality of the house is the eponymous Star Rock.  I bought some, but I haven't yet had the heart to break into the packet, so I will have to report back on what it tastes like.
To my delight, they also make and sell Scottish tablet.  My scottish granny used to make it, and once I learnt the recipe I could make my own.  It sustained me for years as a teenager.
This place also sold home-made tablet.  The normal sort that you can get anywhere had the same grainy texture and sugary flavour, and was sold in squares.
Also in the counter I noticed another basket of what looked like tablet, but it wasn't wrapped in a nice package with ribbon round.  Instead it was in blobs, and wrapped in ordinary food bags.  I pointed to it and asked the lady behind the shop counter what it was.  She told me in hushed tones that this was the stuff from the pan bottom.  Apparently for tablet aficionados this is thought to be smoother and something of a delicacy.
No prizes for guessing whether I bought some.  It's nice to know whatever your poison, there is somewhere in the world where they are on the same wavelength.

3 comments:

  1. What a great shop. I really like the pictures you took. I have never had Scottish tablet, but it looks divine. It looks kind of like the pralines we have here. They are all crystallized sugar and sinfully good.
    Enjoy your sweets.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an amazing shop! I found an old heritage sweet shop in Bedford and the owners just loved talking about old sweets! A trip down memory lane, we are all still big kids at heart!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My teeth ache at the thought of them! Must confess, I was too old when I first tried tablet at 28 to develop a liking for it - I'm a fudge and toffees girl, daren't do the latter too often either for fear of a filling or two falling out. Our holiday towns have lovely old fashioned sweet shops - Bambi in Frinton, which is the last left of six or seven when I was a child; and Cranch's in Totnes.
    Love those rows of jars but these days they're all plastic, not the glass we grew up with. Damn I'm sounding like an old person...

    ReplyDelete