Pudding

Pudding defies any sort of culinary pigeonhole. It is an elemental dessert in diners (where vanilla pudding is known as a “sleigh ride special” and tapioca pudding is “fish eyes and glue”); and it has inspired soigne chefs to create the likes of lime-scented poppy-seed mango rice pudding served by Marcus Samuelson in New York’s Aquavit and chocolate-praline pudding with cinnamon cream that Charlie Trotter used to serve in Chicago. Indian pudding was the first thing American Colonists learned to cook; Banana pudding was Elvis Presley’s favorite snack.

Rice pudding, chocolate pudding, banana pudding, sticky toffee pudding, crème brulee, and caramel custard are known throughout the land, but there are some kinds of pudding that retain cultural identity: Indian pudding and Grape-Nuts pudding in New England, Indiana persimmon pudding, Dixie sweet potato pudding, Creole bread pudding with whiskey sauce, Mexican-restaurant flan, Italian-restaurant zabaglione and panna cotta, Jewish-deli kugel (noodle pudding that can be savory or sweet), and southern spoonbread.