This Sago thing is a bit of a weird one as I am not really a pudding guy…anything sponge related is a no, no for me, for instance.
I think you guys are either talking about something else or it was made differently, either way, the taste is quite light and neutral. Or maybe middle age makes grown men eat strange things to get them unhealthy in preparation for the boatman.
Puddings have always been a mystery to me.
A lovely silky panna cotta. Or anything with pistachos. Or a proper trifle.
Homemade apple crumble and custard - Just like my mum once made.
Figs in syrup with mascarpone cheese - so sweet and creamy.
Raspberry tart and custard - texture of pastry crunch and sharp niceness.
Apple tarte tatin with sweet roasted garlic ice cream - what Michelin chef Claude Bosi made for me.
Just plain vanilla ice cream with shavings of 90% Lindt cacao - nice and easy lemon squeezy.
Well, we just finished off this evening with the last helpings of Mrs D’s latest chocolate pudding, with a small helping of double cream.
Tomorrow it will be apple crumble again. The Brambly apples are home grown as are the added sweeter apples that ever so slightly round off the sharpness of the Bramblys.
Now there’s a great dessert, ugly stuff in the wrong hands however made well it’s hard to beat.
The two greatest puddings I’ve ever had were both in Paris - and both, funnily, in the same restaurant (a resolutely old-fashioned place called Lasserre, which also happens to be my and The Termagant’s favourite eaterie).
The first was back in 1992, when I had creme pat-filled choux pastry profileroles on a bed of saffron ice-cream with warm bitter chocolate sauce and burnt almonds (The Termagant had an île flotante, which was also extraordinary).
The second was in 2012, on my 50th birthday. We had the tasting menu which included two puddings the first of which (and best) was a lime, raspberry, chantilly cream and pistachio vacherin - just the most amazing thing (the other pud was olive oil ice cream, also great but not quite as stellar as the vacherin). At the time the pastry chef at Lasserre was the famous Claire Heitzler, then reckoned to be one of the two or three best pastry chefs in the world.
Black pudding with pepper or mustard sauce. Can’t beat it.
Since the chart seems to be ranking anything sweet then I’d like to put in a mention for Cannoli.
I’ve found it difficult (in the past) to get decent ones in the UK but that seems to be improving.
The best I’ve had though have naturally been in Sicily, I was told that there was a place in Datillo called ‘Eurobar’ which did the best Cannoli in Sicily, whether it did or didn’t, I don’t know. What I am confident of is Eurobar served the best Cannoli it’s been my pleasure to eat. So good that when I holidayed there a second time I travelled the best part of an hour to go there… twice.
Good extension to the thread.
I can’t recall which restaurant it was in in London (Ocean?), except I think it was off the Strand, but the most memorable desert I ever had was confit tomato. I surmise sugar syrup rather than oil or fat was used. However, it does not rate highly because I’ve never managed to recreate it at home.
How could I overlook Steak Pudding.
(Usually served with chips peas and gravy only. The addition of a fish isn’t really acceptable, probably frowned upon).
I have never tried black pudding with a pepper or mustard souce - it looks and sounds fab! I usually just have my black puds with a generous portion of Colmans English mustard. I will be giving your sauces a try.
To be specific, it is Black peppercorn sauce.
Brill, thanks for clarifying. A defo super pudding, better than most sweet puddings I think!
I had my first taste of Cannoli just before lockdown - a little treat at my local Italian. Chocolate, vanilla or pistachio - one of each please
We use to live in Five Dock (a suburb of Sydney) that’s home to the Italian community, wonderful bakery’s and the best cannolis I’ve ever tasted. Lots of other delicious stuff that I’d never heard before I moved there.
I’ve only had Cannoli once, many years ago, from an Italian bakery in Boston’s North End and it was sublime.
One ‘pudding’ I’ve always regretted not trying on trips to the Far East is the Durion Fruit - it is legendary, banned in some places and decribed to me like eating custard in a sewer. Anyone tried it?
Yes! Its gross. The smell is like dog poo mixed with rhubarb and custard sweets, a thing of mythical status that you only ever visit once.
Do you get a free doctors appointment with that. 
