Date Pudding at Nomad

Wow, another long SDP hiatus.

While not technically sticky date pudding, this offering from Nomad in the East Village was certainly full of dates.  However, the consistency was more like pureed dates than a pudding, and it was served cold.  Nicole and I shared it, and from memory the sauce was similar to butterscotch.

Photo courtesy of my cousin Emma who was visiting with her parents.

Date Walnut Tart

I was looking over the blogs I administer the other day and noticed The SDP Connoisseur. I began to feel remorse for not blogging in such a long time and a dim memory crossed my mind... I did have SDP recently... what was that?

Above is a picture of the Date Walnut Tart from Vinegar Hill House in Brooklyn. Mom came into town (town meaning New York, where we now live) a couple of weekends ago and took us out to hip Brooklyn.

Vinegar Hill House does not take reservation, but no problem, because there is a bar! Our wait for a table was 2 hours long. Our meal, as far as I can remember, was amazing.

Our dessert, I completely forgot about until browsing through my blogs.

I'm pretty sure it was incredible. I don't think I forgot about it because of it's lack of incredibility, but because of the 2 hour hungry bar wait leading up to it. It was (is) a pretty incredible, cute little restaurant. And look at that picture! Yum. I can't believe we remembered to take a picture of it! However, this black spot on my memory does make me wonder what other SDP related desserts I've forgotten about over the years...

Pav@Market

Okay, okay, another non-SDP post, but it's an Aussie dessert, so the link is there, however tenuous.




The dessert in question was from the new restaurant Market, part of the also new Shangri-La hotel in Vancouver. The occasion was a visit from Cindy, who wanted to try out the restaurant. After a delicious meal, the pavlova caught my eye on the dessert menu, a little unusually described as a white chocolate pavlova with yuzu sorbet and Thai basil syrup. After downing a pre-dinner Lemon Yuzu Drop, how could I resist?

And it was wonderful - the wafer thin meringue was crisp, the white chocolate mousse was silky smooth and the combination of the sorbet and syrup gave a pleasant tang. Five stars!

Raw Prawn SDP

This was the first SDP in a long, long time, and sadly, disappointing. Let's just say that the ice cream was the best part. Perhaps we should have taken warning from the name of the place where we got it - the Raw Prawn Bistro, part of O'Brien's Hotel in Narooma, NSW. It was listed on the menu as simply "Sticky Date".

The place was packed with people from all walks of life on a Tuesday night. The wait in the queue just to order was 45 minutes. Nicole made sure that we had a table by sitting at it (with her Jacob's Creek piccolo bottle of wine) while I waited in line. I was fortunately kept amused by the conversations around me, the pick of which was this little exchange:

Woman 1: "Yeah, ya know, I've always wanted to go to New Zealand, but haven't got around to it"
Woman 2: "You should go, it's great"
Woman 1: "Well, we have a unit in Auckland, so if we do go, it would be a tax write-off"

Anyway, back to the pudding. The texture was quite soggy. That's really all I can remember, I waited too long to write the review! It was also possibly influenced by the fact that we were quite full after our seafood platter for two which was mostly deep fried. The fresh oysters were good though. And importantly, not a raw prawn in sight.

Sticky Ice Cream

Sticky fig & Honeycomb
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

Well, well, finally a blog post after a 2009 that was free of sticky date pudding. And not only is there going to be this post, but there will soon be another post to follow - if Adam gets around to doing it.

Granted, this post isn't about sticky date pudding, but the next one will be.

Anyway, not to give away our first 2010 encounter with SDP, but it was pretty much a disappointment.

Over the christmas/new year holiday we spent almost two weeks visiting family and friends in Melbourne, and then decided to drive up the coast to Sydney to catch our flight back to Canada.

The three day drive was marvelous - crystal clear waters, white sand beaches, rolling countryside, stunning views and million dollar sunsets.

On our third day's drive from Narooma to Sydney, we decided to stop in Jervis Bay for lunch. While the view was spectacular and promises of dolphins jumping through the clear waters convinced us that it was an ideal place for lunch, those factors also drew a couple hundred other holiday makers. So parking was a bitch, but we eventually found a spot. The trick is to park on the street because Australians are scared of parallel parking so there's usually a spot.

Anyway, after wandering past crowded, unappealing cafe after crowded unappealing cafe, we happened upon Toby's Estate whose menu offered an amazing looking roasted pumpkin, Jarlsberg and pesto turkish bread sandwich. I must say, that where Australia has failed in street parking, they have definitely dominated in sandwich making.

After my near perfect sandwich, I felt a needed something a bit sweet and noticed little tubs of ice cream in the freezer behind Adam. Fooled by the colors of the tubs, I asked Adam if he wanted strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, or chocolate vanilla swirl. He told me I could decide.

When I reached the freezer, I realized how wrong my ice cream flavor stereotype had been. The 'strawberry' was actually tangerine flavor, the 'chocolate' was double chocolate fudge, and the 'vanilla' was *gasp* sticky fig & honeycomb!!!

Now I realize sticky fig isn't sticky date, but since we haven't blogged in over a year, and since our SDP experience from the previous night was so poor (see upcoming blog), I thought I needed to redeem our poor little blog.

The Sticky Fig and Honeycomb ice cream was incredible and only $3.50AUD. The figs weren't too sticky and the honeycomb wasn't too overbearing. All in all it was a very refreshing end to a lovely lunch and a perfect addition to a beautiful location.

Anyway, a quick Google of Serendipity Ice Cream provided me with this information: Serendipity is a family business which was started in 1966 by my mother, Alix Mandelson. She started making her own ice cream at home because, at the time, the most exotic ice cream available in Sydney was Neapolitan – and she is allergic to chocolate!

So there you go.

The moral of the story is, if you are in New South Wales and feeling the need for ice cream WITH traces of the excitement of sticky date pudding, Serendipity's Sticky Fig & Honeycomb could be your best bet.

Adam's 28 Birthday SDP

candles out
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

The first Sticky Date Pudding made in Vancouver by us, or at least me.

I used an SDP recipe found on ABC (which I can't find right now), and combined it with another recipe that used ramekins. The recipe I used called for much less butter than the previous recipe Adam and I attempted.

Overall, it was yummy, although I probably needed a bit more dates for the pudding and probably could have cooked it a bit longer.

Sister act

The time has come to include a guest reviewer. Introducing... Amanda!

Bear House Restraunt[sic], Cranbourne, VIC 14/2/08 Good butterscotch sauce, but not sure about the WHOLE dates present in the pudding. Still nice though, but being forgotten in a restruant[sic] for over an hour does bring the quality of the dessert down a little... :)

Editor's comments:

"Good to see the strawberry and ice cream on the side."

Canadian Pudding

So here it is, the first North American SDP we've come across. Ironically, it was made by not only an Australian chef, but a Melburnian. And the other dessert was another Aussie icon, the pavlova.

The pudding was moist, and was served with whipped cream. There was adequate butterscotch sauce, and the surface of the pudding was delightfully caramelised.

Mmm, sticky.

Fusion

Here it is - the other SDP, the Sticky Date (and Pecan) Pie. Fusion of date, nut and pie in a non-pudding format. Yummers.

In other news, we just discovered our first source of SDP in Vancouver, Nu on Granville Street: "Matt's Famous Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding (with warm butterscotch sauce). Looking forward to it!

Apple Pie - the SDP of North America?

So, there haven't been any posts for quite a while. That's for a very good reason - lack of material, so to speak. This continent appears to be an SDP-free-zone. Therefore, we decided to once again make our own, but we were hindered by the lack of a crucial ingredient at the local supermarket.

As SDP is the national dessert of Australia (that's right, move over pav), apple pie is to North America, or at least the US. So we decided to give it a go, pastry and all.



I think it turned out quite well. It's been keeping us happy for the last three days.

100 mL does not a metric cup maketh

And that is today's lesson. Explains why we've often needed more flour than expected in many recipes... oh well. This was pointed out by my sister, who insisted in us making a batch up SDP this afternoon. Dates were purchased fresh from the Queen Vic Market, which made a real difference - much easier to chop up.

The photo shows the pudding in the state in which it should ideally be consumed; steaming hot.

The verdict for this batch is - yummy. And nicely accompanied by the strawberries.

100% SDP

100% SDP
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

We had a weekend away from Melbourne. Off to Gippsland, but not the flooded bit. Just the cold, somwhat wet bit. Checked into our B&B and headed to the Grand Ridge Brewery in Mirboo North.

Fantastic beer, good mains, lovely ambiance, beautiful sticky date pudding.

As you can see, cream instead of ice-cream, but it was still yummy. An added bonus was the rasberry something they had on the bottom. Yummy.

Honestly though, after a couple beers and some champagne, I was really just hungry and scarfed it down with the rigour I usually save for SDP.

The Card Night

A card night was held, which had a Mexican theme in all but the dessert. Burritos were eaten, Coronas were consumed, but not even this overwhelming Mexicana could displace the SDP from it's position as the king of desserts. What is a Mexican dessert anyway? However, I must confess that this was frozen pudding from the supermarket, which, after warming in the oven, was shovelled out onto plates and drowned in cream (butterscotch sauce was sadly not included in the box).

It was sticky, it was datey, it was pudding-ey, it was hot, it was not bad for a foil-wrapped effort. In an emergency, I have no hesitation in recommending the frozen SDP.

Wedding at Poet's Lane

Congratulations Amanda and Pete! Not only did they became husband and wife in grand style at Poet's Lane, they also presented a grand dessert buffet, including the SDP.

The pudd' was warm, springy and moist, if a little pale. Paleness could be related to the amount of date, as we found with our own experiment. The ice cream and strawberries made the perfect companions.

Critiquing Ourselves

We found a recipe online and decided to give it a go:

You need:
1 1/4 cups pitted dates
1 cup water
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
60g table margerine
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups SR flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Butterscotch sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
150ml cream
125g butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
1. Check oven shelf position (middle shelf) and turn on oven to 180C. Grease and flour muffin trays.
2. Measure dates and chop into small pieces. Put into suacepan.
3. Measure water into saucepan and place on stove.
4. Bring dates and water to boil, reduce heat and simmer until dates are mushy.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
6. Beat eggs. Measure table marg.
7. Measure and sift flour and bi-carb soda onto plate.
8. Measure and add sugar and vanilla to date mixture. Add marg.
9. Add eggs gradually, stirring well after each addition. Fold in flour and soda with a wooden spoon.
10. Spoon mixture into muffin tins and bake for 12-15 minutes.
11. Turn out muffins onto cake cooler. Cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm.

Butterscotch sauce
1. Measure sugar, cream, butter and vanilla into a saucepan.
2. Combine all ingredients - bring to boil while stirring.
3. Turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Keep warm in a jug.

Serving Suggestion: Place one sticky date pudding onto a small plate. Pour a little butterscotch sauce over pudding, place a scoop of icecream beside pudding and garnish with mint leaves.

It was yummy. We have a lot of little sticky date muffins now. It could be darker in color. More dates next time, but making it was great. The smell was incredible. Even before we added all the sugar and stuff. Yum-may

We'll have to give another go sometime.

Friendly Sticky Date BBQ Dessert

This particular little SDP was eaten on Anzac Day, which is traditionally a biscuit day, but I think that SDP is a suitably Aussie substitute, nonetheless. And, to top it off, home made by a friend. It was more a sticky data cake, cooked in a large tray and then cut up for sharing. Even the butterscotch sauce was brought along in a separate container to pour out over the delicious little pieces. Just the treat after waiting for an hour and a half for a sausage to cook on a public BBQ. Obviously we couldn't warm either the cake or the sauce, but very very tasty.

Yeah Maan SDP

Yeah Maan SDP
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

The inspiration.

Finally, we arrived at Yeah Maan, AND it was open and they had Sticky Date Pudding.

As good as I remembered it. Definitely the best presentation so far with the kiwis, strawberries, ice-cream and cinnamon stick garnish. I also like the cinnamon dusted on the plate. Yeah maan.

The taste was consistent and enchanting. I also took a picture of the menu, and maybe one day when I'm not feeling so cheap, I'll text it to Adam's phone and he can bluetooth it to the computer (my phone doesn't have that feature).

My brother Mark was visiting and quite enjoyed Yeah Maan as well. Only he ordered the 'Apple Thingy', which was actually also quite good. Warmed cinnamon apples covered in a carmalized red wine sauce. I like the sauce. Red wine sauce over sticky date? Maybe we'll give it a go one day.

Anyway, the only criticism of 'the inspiration' was Adam felt that there wasn't enough butterscotch sauce.

Still yummy though.


Maybe I'm not as cheap as I thought...

SDD - Sticky Date Disappointment

This post involves the home of the greatest SDP that we have yet tasted, Yeah Maan, and two unfortunate occurences. Firstly, we were all set for a evening of delicious Caribbean fare, topped off naturally with SDP delight. To our surprise and shock, the restaurant in question was dark, quiet and most definitely closed.

Secondly, a gathering was arranged for a group of friends at the same fine establishment, many of whom had been enticed with the promise of SDP. However, upon enquiry during the serving of the mains as to the availability of the dessert, we were informed that the last piece had just been served, and that no more would be forthcoming. Disaster!

Turns out that the reason for the lack of SDP was because at Yeah Maan it is made by the mother of one of the staff. So therein lies the secret - best because it is home made.

The moral of the story is: to avoid disappointment, order your dessert early.

In memory of Sticky Date that could have been....


Post written by Adam, picture added by Nicole

Birthday SDP

Birthday SDP
Originally uploaded by knicole7.

We started off the week quite sadly with the demise of our beloved Friz:

,
run over by a car outside Caulfield park. Rest in peace beloved...

Anyway, things were looking up with Durga's birthday and our task of buying the birthday cake. We walked by the bakery outside of Coles (can't remember the name right now sadly) in St. Kilda and paused in our footsteps. Could it be true? Is that a sticky date pudding? Our task was clear. We must buy it.

Clearly the 'Happy Birthday Durga' did not stay on the butterscotch sauce properly, but the bakery did provide us with an extra tub of that delicious sweetness to pour over the final cake.

So we met up with the gang at Mamma Dukes at Caulfield Monash to not only celebrate Durga's 26 years, but also her release from hospital (yay!). Expensive wine that was discounted for us flowed regularly, the dinners were satisfying and all were having a good time.

Alas, the "Happy Birthday" was sung and we hailed the beauty of Sticky Date with a sparkler on top. Pieces were cut, the extra butterscotch was placed on the table and all rejoiced...

Except, my beloved co-blogger. As we were handing out the many pieces of sticky date it seems that there was a miscount and Adam was left out of the distribution. Thus it forced us to share my small piece of sticky birthday...

It was good because it was birthday and had the extra sauce. It would have been better if it were heated, Adam got his own piece and there was some kind of ice cream beside it.

But I enjoyed it, and I believe the rest of the party did as well.

Stucky Date Pudding

Kia ora!

It appears that along with the possum, the sticky date pudding has been introduced into the land of the Kiwi, with similar devastating results on the local environment (well, maybe not).

This particular little sample was had in a pub in Motueka. It is a slight variation on the norm, in that the sauce was caramel, rather than the traditional butterscotch. Still OK, but not as good as the original. Let's just say that it didn't last long on the plate, and that was after four lamb chops for dinner, plus wedges for afternoon tea AND nachos for lunch. This was post kayak/hike semi-starvation, after all.

Done.