Pudding at The Queen Mary Teahouse

By Sonia Lyris

On a recent afternoon I went to Seattle's Queen Mary Teahouse for high tea.

When we arrived, the teahouse was full, women clustered around small tables and few girls in tiaras, all drinking tea from delicate china cups. The place was festooned with traditional feminine knicks and knacks, lace and frills everywhere.

I don't eat wheat and consequently had to skip all the cute little sandwiches, biscuits and the like. I asked the server, "What have you got that is really intensely chocolate?"

"Ahhh," my gracious server answered smoothly. "May I recommend our 'warm chocolate pudding'?"

You may indeed. Most people go to the Queen Mary for high tea, which is biscuits and fruit and cakes and mini-quiches and such on a tiered silver tray. The chocolate pudding comes instead off the dessert menu.

It's served very slightly warm along with heavy cream, which is always a welcome sight in my world, so I had plenty. It's pudding, all right, thickly and darkly chocolate, creamy and goopy. It took me back to childhood, with memories of my mother stirring a bubbling pot and chocolate on the air.

This is the adult version: intense, rich, sweet, and—I can't think of a better word— invigorating. I had an unexpected surge of energy afterwards, not entirely explainable by the caffeinated tea. There's a lot of chocolate in this bowl of pudding, and even with my refined ability to indulge where chocolate is concerned, I couldn't finish it.

Which is fine. The pudding does just dandy overnight in the fridge and serves nicely the next morning as breakfast. (I make no apologies; you should see what I have for elevenses.)

The tea, if you're wondering, is entirely acceptable as far as tea goes, but Victoria BC's Empress Hotel tea it is not; the Empress understands tea deeply and profoundly, and when one drinks tea there, one experiences the delicacy of taste to which tea can aspire and which one might well spend a lifetime trying to find again.

Queen Mary's tea is not that tea. But it's competent and does the trick.

Back to the pudding.

If you've had a long, touristy Seattle day, what with Red Square and the troll, the bus and the ducks, you might well feel that you deserve something deep and rich and chocolatey to restore your good spirit and sense of adventure. The Queen Mary Warm Chocolate Pudding may be just the thing.

It's worth noting that if you make reservations at the Queen Mary—recommended because they're small and often full, especially during Seattle's tourist season—you are expected to order a full meal or high tea, which at $30 a person doesn't come cheap. If you want the chocolate pudding in addition, you'll need to ask for it off the dessert menu.

Then dive in and indulge! Don't fret about what you don't finish. It'll taste even better in the morning.

Visit http://queenmarytea.com

Seattle-based Sonia Lyris says, “Follow me through the streets of Seattle, from the bright boulevards to the shady alleys, as I explore the best the Emerald City has to offer.”

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