Thanks to cooking with my Nanny (grandmother, not sitter) when I was young, banana pudding is one of my top favorite desserts. She made banana pudding by making pudding on the stove top first, and then pouring the pudding over layers of Nilla Wafers and sliced bananas. The homemade pudding is the key!I rarely find banana pudding on dessert menus, and I only make banana pudding about once a year, so when I do find banana pudding, I'm all over it.
I ran into banana pudding at a bbq joint, a restaurant, and a grocery store while in Charleston, SC. Styles and tastes ran the gamut. Who won?
A quick stop into Bessinger's Bar-B-Q on Hwy 17 to pick up some mustard bbq sauce, and I couldn't resist a container of banana pudding from their cooler. I enjoyed the dessert on the beach, because...what? pudding isn't a beach snack?The banana flavored Jell-0-esque pudding is not ideal (the only banana flavoring in banana pudding should come from the bananas), but fills that cheap, junk food craving.
Fat Hen restaurant on John's Island has really good food...and a good wait to get in the door. There aren't a lot of veggie options, but what I did have was awesome. I quized our server on the banana pudding prep. Pudding homemade? Not banana flavored? Yup. Yup.Awesome!! Just like homemade. I can't believe it didn't come in a larger mason jar (isn't that cute), and I had to share it with three other people. I hate sharing.
What's that? Banana pudding in the cooler at Piggly Wiggly? Got it. Lets go! You'd be suprised at how nice Piggly Wiggly is now a days. The ghetto Piggly Wiggly we shopped at for the first eleven years of my life was just that -- ghetto.The pudding is Jell-O pudding-like. But it's not banana flavored, which is a big up. They also do this little trick of layering a bunch of wafers on the bottom so not all of the wafers get super soggy. Some one was thinking! Piggly Wiggly has a really good fast food version of banana pudding.
Recap:
Bessinger's - Not really
Fat Hen - Hells yes
Piggly Wiggly - Yes
6 comments:
I'm suddenly in the mood for dessert.
Excellent post. It reminded me of the 'Joey doesn't share food!' episode on Friends...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYi7TrvCgoc
Maybe I'm not right in the head today, but I wanted to leave a comment on the previous post and didn't see a button. Anyhoo, that's a great re-cap. I probably would have liked the mac and cheese, but I'm not terribly picky about it, particularly when there is crust. I love crust.
I never thought about grilled a pimiento cheese sandwich and now that is all I can think about.
And I have never thought much about butter beans vs. lima beans, so now I feel compelled to grill the produce people on this matter. And we're overflowing with crookneck squash down here in the south.
you have no idea about how much i MISS banana pudding since going vegan..i've yet to make a vegan version but i used to LOVE it. especially the easy-to-make jello boxes of it where it comes with the wafers and pudding, you just add bananas haha. good post! :)
Lesley - From what I understand lima beans and butter beans are the same genus and species, but two different varieties. Lima is larger. Butterbean is smaller. Butterbeans can also be brown/white/yellowish as well as green. Subtle taste difference, but it's there.
Lauren - I haven't done it, but I might try using Mori-nu pudding mix (you add silken tofu) as a pudding base. I have no idea if vanilla wafers are vegan, though.
I LOVE banana pudding!
I just read your Oct 2007 post about La Michoacana. You might enjoy this from my blog:
http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico_cooks/2007/06/paletas_popsicl.html
If you'd like to link to Mexico Cooks! from your blog, I'd be delighted.
Congratulations on Mac & Cheese!
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