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“This is going straight to the pool room” ~ Darryl Kerrigan

#5. Sticky Date Pudding

I had never heard of sticky date pudding until our visit to Melbourne when my relatives (second cousins once removed or something like that) took us to Mt. Tambourine (blog post to come with more details on that experience!) and we stopped at a really cute Gelati Shop that was selling Sticky Date Pudding Gelati. Naturally, I asked what that even was, and my relatives were aghast that we had never tasted Sticky Date Pudding. Sadly, they weren’t able to make any for us in the time that we had with them, but I was now on a mission to get me some Sticky Date Pudding…

When David and I arrived in Adelaide we knew one of the first things we needed to find was a church family, so we wake up that first Sunday – four days after arriving – Google, “Churches in Adelaide” and after reading through a few sites, we come across one that seemed most intriguing: Christian Family Centre, Seaton. Off we went!

Not to our surprise, the people were very welcoming and some even stopped to chat with us, but before we could make our escape after the service – totally kidding, we loved it so much we decided to stay for the “Pastor’s Lunch” where they welcome anyone new to the church a free lunch to get to know the Pastors. But anyway, after the service, this man, we’ll call him Tim, came up to us and asked if we were from America. He then went on to say he overheard us talking before the service and knew the accent because he had lived in America for a few years. Long story short, Tim and his wife, we’ll call her Jane, pretty much take us under their wings, invite us for coffee to get to know each other, and their son’s going away dinner after that. Next thing we know we’re having dinner at their house just about every Wednesday night! Tim and Jane open their home up for young adults every Wednesday to provide dinner and the best conversations! Seriously, by the end of the night, we’d leave with stomachs filled, minds stimulated, and faces sore from laughter!

Anyway, you’re probably wondering how in the world this all relates to Sticky Date Pudding, but I promise I’m getting there… These Wednesday night dinners are not just any dinner. Jane is an incredible cook, and I mean INCREDIBLE! There wasn’t one meal she provided all of us that wasn’t good, and each dinner is accompanied by an even more delicious dessert. So when David and I came back from Melbourne without a taste of Sticky Date Pudding, I knew just the person to make it!

For our last dinner at Tim and Jane’s house, before leaving back to America, Jane went all-out-Aussie! It was awesome; meat pie with tomato chutney, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas! And for dessert? You guessed it! Sticky Date Pudding!!

The epitome of an Australian meal!

But! What could possibly make this an even more Aussie night? Before serving the Sticky Date Pudding, Tim and Jane had us all set up in front of the television to watch The Castle – a classic Australian movie. The funny part is, all the Australians wanted to watch us watch this movie to see how many jokes we didn’t understand, but to our delight, I suppose we had been in Australia long enough to find the movie quite hilarious! One of the very frequent lines in that movie is “This is going straight to the pool room!” stated by the proud father who would display anything valuable his family received in the pool room.

Sitting there watching the movie and eating what is now one of my favorite desserts ever was one of the best memories of my experience in Australia so far – definitely one for the pool room!

Who needs citizenship? As far as I’m concerned, that night was our Australian ceremony!

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Cheers,

Joyful Jot