Category: dessertPrice: 96p, about $3.65 in the US. Ingredients: water, sugar, wheat flour, raisins, vegetable oil, dried skimmed milk, golden syrup, raising agents (diphosphates and sodium bicarbonate), egg white, salt, spices, flavoring, spice extracts Okay, finish giggling now. Yes, it is called "spotted dick". Yes, I ate something called "spotted dick". "I had some spotted dick." "That spotted dick looks good." Okay. Do you have it out of your system now? Good. The British love steamed puddings. Any context that Americans would have pie or cake, out comes a steamed pudding. But it's pretty good. In the old days you would have to steam the darned things yourself, but these days they're all microwavable so it's a pretty good dessert. You open a can and nuke it for a few seconds and you have steaming hot pudding. Spotted Dick is a steamed pudding with raisins. 
Right out of the can, spotted dick looks like a yellow cake with raisins. It smells very sweet and good, like cake warm from the oven. The brilliance of the steamed pudding is that this cake is always served warm and is always moist. It smelled delicious and looked pretty good too.
It tasted as good as it looked. I have to admit that this isn't the first spotted dick I've eaten. (Go ahead and giggle. Done now? Good.) It is a fine example of the dessert. It is a lightly spiced moist cakey kind of pudding with just enough raisins to make it interesting. In fact, this is the first raisin-studded British dessert I've had where the raisins are in the exact right proportion where they add flavor and texture without completely dominating the dish. So if you're ever in Great Britain, you should make a point to try spotted dick, just so you can go home to your friends and say, "I had some great spotted dick." Actually, you can also buy some reasonably priced spotted dick in the US from English Tea Store. It's tasty and worth a try.
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Alana Muir © 2006