...in the local Irish/UK grocery store: a can of Spotted Dick. Yes! Suet (? do they still use it) pudding! in a can! With raisins! god, if that's not one for *Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food, I don't know what is.
And that's without the name.
"Yes, please. And a pound of Pustule Pudding and then, I think some Bubble & Queef. Oh, and have you any of that marvellous Crickety Felch? Oh, dear. When do you expect your next shipment? Ripping!"
*possibly the only genuinely funny neocon in existence. and even then i can't bear to read the actual political crap
35 comments:
I'm from the UK, and was in a supermarket here where they had a pudding called "'Granny's' Spotted Dick." I got a few odd looks after I started maniacally laughing at the label on the packet.
GRANNY'S, even better.
and you know, i am really eager to check my sitemeter -today,- after a few more comments
Spotted dick is the name we had for a certain social disease that would make an appearance at the emergency room after football season.Names aside, suet with raisins sounds GROOOOSSS. That's what we put out for the birds in winter. But then what can you expect from a society that makes jellied eel. And blood pudding. Ick.
"mushy peas"
I love Regrettable Food.
I even have that jello cookbook.
I didn't know Lileks was a neoconguy. huh.
mmm french fries. Now there's a food that no one can question.
I am SO going to get some of this for my brother's Christmas stocking.
Now there's a food that no one can question.
Depends on what they're fried in. 8^D
Ahhh, no thank you.
I'm not sure that my fragile stomach can handle stuff put out to birds in the winter...even if it wasn't marketed as "Spotted Dick".
Good thing I ate about an hour ago. *blecch*
Anthony
Hey, BD, just so you know, I...uhhh...kinda tagged you...if you're down.
I don't like spotted dick (insert Carry On style innuendo here.. that's not what *he* said etc), but pudding in a can is the bollocks. None of this runny North American crap, proper pudding should so heavy you can't move for a week after eating it.
BL- I've been checking up on my 90-something grandparents who live 2000 miles into God's Own Country. Thanks for wondering, it's nice to be noticed :o)
Interesting all this. Conservatives think Liberals have all the sense of humor of a wet sock. And yet...common ground and no one is being denigrated in the process. Except for Dick and his spots. So whats-his-name being a neocon doesn't automatically disqualify him from whatever? No more than BD putting up that photo and inviting commentary disqualifies her even tho she's Liberal... Ok ok. I'll stop.
An observation and I will retreat to my lemon zinger and box of Puffs. *ahshoo!* whatever I said, the cold meds made me do it.
Note that i was being very specific there indeed: not Republican, not conservative. NEOCON. who may indeed be a diverse lot, all full of depth and surprises and so on and so forth, but who are generally not, -in my experience,- a bundle of (advertent, at least) laughs.
or well i dunno. is PJ O'Rourke a neocon? but in any case, i find him too smarmy to be actually funny, most of the time.
Ben Stein (more old-school, perhaps) has sometimes made me crack a smile, but my god, he's an ignorant putz.
there was this guy on the BBS who did a supposed 180 from radical leftie libertarian to foaming neocon, after 9/11 (Everything Changed, you know). it's possible that he stopped being funny to me and others precisely because his targets were different; but somehow, i don't think that was all of it. went from funny-angry to just angry and nasty, alternating with heavily mawkish sentimentality (self-pitying, is what it was). and i dunno, but a lot of what used to look like quicksilver wit seemed increasingly lumbering and forced.
i also think that a number of people on the left end of the spectrum have gone from funny-angry to just plain angry and unpleasant over the years. another one of those cases where the personal really is political, perhaps? some people don't really evolve so much as ossify. But: Harlan Ellison. Woody Allen (alas, how have the mighty fallen). George Carlin, although he can still be extremely funny in delivery and timing and riffs and so on (i.e. "Aristocrats").
and i think Garrison Keillor is highly underappreciated among the "chic," frankly.
waves hello at deborah and kat.
hope you feel better, rootietoot.
i have either allergies (it's been a ghastly season thus far, it is agreed by many) or the beginnings of a cold or both.
well..all I know is that I just finished reading that guys web site and laughed straight through. I don't think about politics and agendas and all that too much, but coffee jello- now THAT'S funny! I don't think it would have ever occured to me to consider what a persons political/social alignment, and whether or not their sense of humor was tied to that. If something's silly, it's silly. I suppose I'm just bemused by the apparent surprise that a neocon could be funny.
just me being snarky.
and yes, he is hell funny when it comes to popcult. i mean, like, fall on the floor, wet yer pants funny.
i guess wrt him in particular, what bemuses -me,- is, the stuff he keeps making fun of, it's like, you realize, when you read the political stuff, he kind of sort of takes it -seriously,- also, the nostalgia trip, i mean. it's hard to explain without seriously delving into his political stuff, and i don't wanna.
that, and, i'm always sort of taken aback when people who have (to me) an obviously very campy, ironic sensibility turn out not only to be straight but quite square, sentimental in a particular way...
anyway, just: he's a funny one. in several senses.
but Gallery of Regrettable Food is one of the few books that can still bring me to tears of laughter even in the reread.
...actually you know, coffee jello doesn't sound all that bad to me. and i think some of the Asian snack and dessert shops around here tend to have such things.
no, what's really horrifying to me: well, from the book, first of all, the PICTURES, my god (and his commentary, which is really what sends me over the edge)
...but wrt Jello, okay, there were some...
i dunno. some horrifying-looking things that were supposed to be like main courses, with shrimp and suchlike just SUSPENDED there in glittering green...
hualp
and then things like, the many uses of Sprite (or 7-Up), including basting yer roasts with it.
i mean, i have heard of Co-Cola in meat dishes, and in cake.
but sprite is just a BRIDGE TOO DAMN FAR.
tangy and delicious! yeah right: just use the frigging ACTUAL LEMONS AND LIMES, brain trust...
of course that wouldn't sell the product.
the ads from the 30's are pretty interesting and funny as well; he has some really smart commentary about how you can see the economic state of the country through some of 'em.
but there's some kind of proto-Crisco, triple-whipped something or other, which uses a cozy looking grandma type in cornball cozy speak as its signature (a la Betty Crocker, you know), and the "story" he writes for each ad just...killing myself, couldn't breathe...
I have a large collection of vintage cookbooks just of the sort he uses. SOme of the recipes- Spam Aspic W/ Garden Peas, AngelFood Cake Filled With Strawberry Fluff (which, incidentally, tastes almost exactly like Pepto Bismol)- are great fodder for my children "Mom! Make this for my wedding!"
Right now I'm looking at my 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook, and the photo of Parsleyed Steak Rolls which look like...um...well...a platter of pony penises. With strategically placed whole onions. Someone was likkered up when they took that photo. Alas my scanner is on the fritz.
gah.
is strawberry fluff related to marshmallow fluff? i think i've seen that shit.
yeah, it's strawberry jello, marshmallow goo from the jar, and cool-whip. I made it when I was 9, and my father, ever the soul of discretion and tact, made the pepto connection.
rootie - I envy your cookbook (cookpamphlet?) collection.
That's pretty awesome, I gots to say.
Still, though, don't knock blood pudding till you've tried it--I got dared to, once, and had a good solid bite of Scottish black sausage.
It was actually pretty good. Granted, I like the taste of blood, and that's what it tastes like.
(If you were my girlfriend or my little brother, this is where I'd make with the spooky handwaving and enunciate, "Like a scab. EWWWWWW." and laugh. But, well.)
eek.
I did have and like blood sausage ("morcilla") in a Spanish tapas bar once. may not be the same thing, tho'.
I don't eat blood, brains or balls. It's just Not Right.
OK lemme get this straight- a Neocon isn't the same as a Con, and Garrison Keillor...is a neocon? I've always considered him somewhere to the left of Paul Wellstone (who, incidentally is one of the very few liberal politicians I truly respected. His death was a great loss to our country). Keillor as a neocon (whatever that is)- nope...can't picture it.
oh, no, not at all. I just think he (Keillor) is underrated among certain sets.
ok..well.. I enjoy Prairie Home Companion and have several of his books. I like him as long as he keeps his commentary to the status of Norwegien bachelor farmers and Lutheran Housewives.
An aside but not really: I showed SD the Spotted Dick, and he announced that We Will Aquire Some for #1's Christmas Stocking.
Must - try - to - resist - the - light... must - try - to - resist - the - light -
Arrah, look:
I once ate a deep fried mushy pea fritter and (after a lot of premature scoffing) I must say it tasted heavenly.
I love Irish working class staples like apple tart with custard or mince pies (they're vegetarian and spicy and they make me smile); I LOVE Irish sausages and Irish Breakfasts (yes with fried eggs and baked beans); I love Shepard's Pie and Curry Chips and Fish Suppers and the whole shebang.
But most of all I love Irish Wheaten Bread, lightly toasted, with Raspberry Jam, lashings of butter and a mug of hot tea.
Yum. Now I miss home. Food should make you laugh, I think. And fat too, a little, if it's good.
i have some of that thar wheaten berad RIGHT NOW, from that very store.
forgot the jam tho'
per deep fried mushy pea fritter... proof that ANYTHING tastes good if it's fried. even cow booge..er...oysters.
Why is it that food from Gr. Britain sounds so heavy? I mean, beans on toast? There is clotted cream, of course...heaven in a spoon. (this from the part of the US of A that deep fries everything)
Always let Hothead do the gathering. Always.
Lileks also at least used to have a site entirely dedicated to home decor of the 70's, just as piss-yer-knickers funny as the regrettable food. It's called Interior Desecrations, just found it linked off his original page right after Regrettable Food.
Snot-dripping-off-face, where the fuck is a Kleenie when you need one?! Thanks for the reminder. I needed a good laugh after a shit day.
When I used to read mainstream blogs I remember the running joke on TBogg, The Poor Man's Institute, and World O' Crap was about Lilek's practically living at Target with his daughter, who he calls, Gnat. I'm serious, in his blog, the bleat, he used to write about his trips to Target with the daughter at least once a week...and calling your kid Gnat?
Post a Comment