Saturday, May 16, 2009

Shoppin' on the foreign foods aisle!

Groceries stores in the U.S. are quite the experience, one Americans take for granted. We can buy anything in them – turkey breast, pork butt, spotted dick… Yes, I said spotted dick. Don’t stop reading now. You KNOW you want to know what I’m talking about!

Apparently, from the dust on these cans, Americans don’t eat much spotted dick. But the British do. It’s their concoction of pudding with currants (hence the term spotted), which is sold in a can.


But how did it get the name “dick”?

I asked my British friend Doris.

“Spotted dick,” explained the sweet old woman, pronouncing each word with ladylike clarity and no giggles, “means spotted dog.”

“Then why didn’t they just call the pudding spotted dog or cut out the dern reference altogether?” I asked.

“It is what it is,” she explained in that curt, British way. “Put a yellow sauce on it and it’s called treacle dick.” I didn’t even let my mind go there and neither should you.

I did a little digging on the Internet and found a lot of references for dick usage – a cop, an abbreviation for dictionary, a riding whip, an apron, and a penis – but not for pudding nor dog.

One source stated it might be the fault of those tricky British accents. You know, “pudding” becoming “puddink,” then “puddick,” and finally just “dick.”

Heck, I’m just tickled they sell it at my local grocery store!

11 comments:

  1. I think you've left your fans speechless.

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  2. So the question is: Have you ever eaten a spotted dick?

    Malisa

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  3. Lesson learned.
    (please don't answer Malisa's question publicly...)
    ;)
    everything vintage

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  4. Oh and one more thing...
    DebTT is out on vacation, I would LOVE to hear her take on this subject.

    (do people really pay $5.49?)
    I'm sure there are some guys out there handing it out for free...just a thought.

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  5. Let me say...wow. And, I have nothing more to add.

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  6. What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

    When I took Ichthiology (that in itself is a strange word) at A&M, we had to identify many fish species in lab by both their common and scientific names. Among the more entertaining was the Slippery Dick . Now, could I make that up?

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  7. At least it's in a can. What if it came packaged in a tube like sausage?

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  8. You've given us quite the language lesson. I'm just not sure I could eat that pudding.

    -FringeGirl

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  9. I guess I'll have to look at our store & see if there are any cans there. Everyone is probably too embarrassed to buy any.

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  10. Did you happen to catch the Dancing With The Stars episode where Len Goodman compared Lil' Kim to Spotted Dick and Custard? I ran to google it then and just for the record...it's also called dick in a box! Move over Jack!
    Trash

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