The power of the P word

A recent exchange on Twitter reminded me how excited we all get about the word pudding. No sooner had someone mentioned one than we all piled in exchanging tweets on Queen of Puddings, bread and butter pudding and steamed syrup sponge.

Savoury puds seem just as much of a turn-on. Once I read that Le Café Anglais was doing a game pudding (the moment has passed unfortunately) and had introduced a sage and onion pudding to accompany their trademark rotisserie chicken I knew I had to get down there pronto and try it (as the rather blurry photograph above bears out)

It was actually much lighter than I had envisaged - more like a fluffy little dariole mould of bread sauce with the merest hint of sage but none the worse for that. Apparently chicken sales have doubled since they introduced it.

Other happy hunting grounds for pudding-lovers are The Walnut Tree where Shaun Hill currently offers parsnip pudding with roasted root veg (mmmm), Rules which has an entire pudding menu including Spotted Dick and that splendid English institution The Goring.

Are you a pudding aficionado and if so, which are your favourites? And do you, like me, like savoury ones as much as sweet?