Sticky Toffee Pudding

When I was around 8 or 10 years old, our neighbor, fondly called bhai mami migrated to Australia. her sister moved in to take care of the house. bhai mami made trips every may/june and we knew she had come just by looking at her beautiful garden. while she was gone, the gardener and her sister didn't pay much attention to the numerous shrubs and plants. I think this was the only reason mami made trips every year. - to look after her plants.

So enough background. Once during her annual visit, i was waiting for my school van outside her gate, mami asked me if I had tasted sticky toffee pudding. I asked her if she was talking about 'caramilk' - the toffee that used to stick all over your teeth. she smiled and said pudding. I didn't know what she was talking about. The entire day, for some weird reason, i was thinking about sticky toffee pudding. Like how you develop images of the fictional characters in your head while you read a book, i had this vague image of a gooey brown pudding in caramel sauce. trust me, i had no idea how i made up that image but somehow i thought it has to be sticky toffee- (think 10 caramilk chocolates melted ) and it has to be pudding - which i assumed should be something like upma but more gooey. I badly wanted to eat it. Eat that image.

After a few days i completely forgot about it. Turn the clock and i didn't think about it nor did i read it anywhere for the next 17 years, until 3 weeks back. A lazy Sunday evening and we were flipping through channels - and all of a sudden we were on food network and the gorgeous calire robinson said "the best thing i have ever had gooey - sticky toffee pudding". Say whaa? * scream *. I literally jumped from the couch. There i saw claire talking about the best sticky toffee pudding she ever had in Colorado. To my shock and amusement, the pudding looked exactly the way I had it drawn inside my head. Exactly. I was just thrilled and I knew this was something I badly wanted to eat.

The rest of the story is predictable. No, my husband didn't think buying tickets to colarado was a good idea :D. I discovered a place which is actually called the sticky toffee pudding company and guess where they are based out of? surprise surpise, Austin!. And within 15mins, there I am standing in whole foods :D. Four cups in just 10 days, I swear I have never craved for anything so badly. this is one hell of a dessert and my absolute weakness. Next time you are at WF, you absolutely gotta try this out. it is $3.99 btw.