If you are at The Olde Cheshire Cheese it is worth finding The Seven Stars in Carey Street behind The Law Courts in The Strand. Run by the delightful (in name and nature) Roxy Beaujolis, it is tiny with an almost impossible to get to upstairs WC, great beer and interesting food.

Thanks Henneth, I've worked with a few drivers like that! I used to love my mum's Lardy Cake. Wonder why she doesn't make it anymore?

Adam C

Poppa, don't feel guilty! This ole gramma teaches school, so she's heard much worse, I appreciate all the info you provide.

Adamhornets, thanks for the info. about the Seven Stars pub. I haven't been to the Cheshire Cheese in 25 years. So I think that when I'm in London in May, I'll schedule a pint in the Seven Stars and lunch in the Cheshire Cheese.

Poppa, your recipe for spootted d!ck sounded very much like the suet pudding my grandmother, mother, and aunt used to make for Christmas dinner. We always had two varieties--one was the dark pudding which was steamed and served with a hard sauce (oh, sorry, maybe I shouldn't say that either, given the name of the dessert!) and the other was a light pudding which was much more dense and boiled in a cheesecloth bag, served with a different kind of rum sauce. YUM! The best part was the next day--we would slice the leftover white pudding and fry it up in a pan with lots of butter and serve it with maple syrup. Now that my grandmother is no longer living we rarely ever have it, but I think I should learn how to make it. I even have the steamer she used to use! The only problem is that my husband is disgusted by the name "suet pudding." :)

Has anyone else (especially Americans) ever had anything like this?

wildmom, sorry can't take credit for the recipe, I'm just a consumer, not a producer. appreciate your reply in any case.

Poppa

What is hard sauce? Sorry, may not be as knowledgeable as I thought.

Here's a recipe I found on a food site; I guess they call it Hard Sauce because no cooking is involved and it is fairly stiff in texture. Hope this helps.

Poppa

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon brandy

1 dash almond extract -------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in by degrees the brandy and a drop of almond essence.

Yep, that's it. I remember that there was just a bit of dark rum or brandy in the hard sauce. We also served the dark pudding with whipped cream and a bit of brandy as well.

Poppa, where do you get these recipes??