When all else fails

When all else fails, eat a Crunchie bar. It occurs to me that anyone from the British Isles who finds their way to this blog might actually want to know some survival tips. In Manhattan you have Myers of Keswick for a taste of home. They carry all the things we are supposed to crave like Marmite and pork pies. Those of us who have made a home in Brooklyn can find a few of these items at Java Joe's on 8th Street near 7th Avenue in Park Slope. This specialty coffee and tea shop carries basic supplies such as Digestive Biscuits, Hobnobs, baked beans of the proper kind, that disgusting Marmite in its precious little jars, and candies, including the best candy bar in the entire world, a confection of cinder toffee surrounded by milk chocolate, the Crunchie bar. At Christmas they also have mince pies, Quality Street, Roses chocolates, selection boxes and crackers (not the kind you crunch, but the kind you pull. We know what we mean.) The Irish owner does not seem to mind selling her wares to the English, although on the day I visited she was wary of my request to photograph the interior, suspecting me of being a commercial spy about to steal her business model. So let me take this opportunity to reassure all coffee, tea and spice merchants that I am not about to leave a job with union benefits, that used to be secure but is now somewhat less so, to set up a business serving the twenty UK and Irish exiles living in the Park Slope area. After a frosty reception to my first request the owner relented, but my delicate hand was shaking so badly by that time that the interior pictures didn't come out. I had to leave and take a bite of Crunchie to calm my rattled nerves.