In the village where I

In the village where I work, we have a shop called “The Trading Post” which sells cheap and cheerful food and junk. They do a nice line in cheap crisps that have about two weeks to go before their “use by” date, Marks and Spencer jam that failed the cut, and packets of sweets with packaging in strange languages. Which is why I am currently chomping my way through a pack of Fruit Pastilles labelled as “Frutips” and with Chinese writing all over the pack. Although they are marked “Made in UK”, they don’t taste quite the same as regular Fruit Pastllies. It’s hard to describe, but the flavours are slightly more acidic, the green (apple, allegedy) ones tasting slightly coconut-ish and the red (strawberry, or so it says) ones tasting of…um…well, I’m not sure! The ingredients list isn’t helpful. Clearly the regulations in Hong Kong (where these sweets were originally meant to go) are less stringent than in the UK, as there is not so much detail. But I like them anyway.