Rick's Rather Rich

I like the name of this ice cream shop so much that I don't even want to come up with a wittier title for my post :)

Cookies & Dough and Mango in Waffle Cone

Rick's "Rather Rich" Ice Cream is a cute small shop in a weird southern cusp of Palo Alto. It is in a strip mall and has nowhere to sit, but it has delicious fare. They have about 20 flavors of homeade ice creams (as guessed, pretty intense) and some sorbets/yogurts. I've been there several times and never been dissapointed. I love their waffle cones! I'm a huge waffle cone fan, and theirs are very fresh and flavorful. They even have a great selection dipped in chocolate with sprinkles and nuts.

The ice cream is really delicious too. I ALWAYS have to get a scoop of the "cookies and dough" because seriously, it's a combo of cookies & cream and cookie dough... it's hard to get much better than that. I've also tried some of their fruity flavors. My favorite would be the mango sorbet. All of their products are super fresh and simple, but in an awesome way. You can tell it's not processed :D

They also have a selection of homemade fudges, but I've been too lazy to try them yet. Big recommend!

Late Sweet Treats

ack!! It has been awhile :( I am going to try and catch up on my bay area backlog before I delve in to my Tokyo eating adventures. Here goes!

A few weeks back, Ken and I had a wonderful experience getting dessert at Sweet Orchid in Fremont. This adorable mom & pop sweet stop is open late on weekdays (11 pm), has a great atmosphere, and some really unique desserts. The whole place is very cutely decorated, and outside you see the stereotypical asian ice cream cone trash can.

The variety includes gelato, gelato cakes, froyo, cookies, and, my fav :) homemade mochi!! What make it unique are the variety of flavors. After about 10 mins of browsing (and sampling thanks to the very patient owner) we decided to get 2 gelato cakes, 2 cookies, and some mochi. The gelato cakes were awesome!! About the size of a cupcake, but artistically shaped with crust and topping. The flavors were bizarre too. I ended up getting "pandan" which I'm not even sure how to describe. Ken got coconut lime which was awesome. Some of the gelato flavors included rose bud (tastes exactly like it sounds). 

our goods :)

DR

The froyo was interesting too. You could get it in fun waffle bowls or delicate chocolate cups. The cookies were good, but not outstanding. The mochi was the freaking best :D we all know my love for mochi!! It was so so so soft. Ken had his double rainbow moment over it as he could not get over the texture.

It was such a nice find for a relaxing treat after a hard night of aerial acrobatics

Gold Medal Pizza

So stoked. I had the best dinner tonight :D. I hit up Zero Zero, the super trendy new italian/pizza joint in SOMA. You can tell from the outside this place is hopping. It's got a great atmosphere, all mood lit and two stories & two bars. It's definitely got the swanky- I'm cool & I know it vibe. The entire meal i was fixated on a bizzare picture that covered the back wall with a Pinocchio-esque puppet stuck to a pizza. If that doesn't scream hip, i don't know what does.

Anyways, FOOD!! Seriously, so great. For an appetizer, eugi and I split ricotta stuffed fried butternut squash in pesto w/ tomatoes. Quite good, it was tempura-ey and the tomatoes were an awesome pallet cleanser from the bold flavors of the squash. Only complaint was that the bowl had three. wtf. there are two of us!! Couldn't you at least give us an even number?? It's like when you go to dinner with 4 people and they give you 5 breads, someone's gotta be the douche and take the last piece.

Pizza Filer!

But the pizza completely outshone that. For the record, outshone is apparently a word because there's no red squiggle action going on. Bizarre. I knew we were in for a treat when our waiter brought the "pizza filer" to our table :). There was quite a nice menu. I got a white pizza with rosemary oil, mozzarella, parmesan, and potatoes and eugi got margherrita. mmmmm so freaking tasty!!! It was so light (meaning i didn't feel like crap when i horked my entire pie) and the flavors were so potent and fresh! Mine was incredible with some red pepper flakes to spice up the flavor and eugi's was classic amazing.

Up close and personal pizza

As if this wasn't good enough, Zero Zero is also known for their soft serve ice cream!! It's even build-your-own, so the waiter brings you a paper and pencil and you mark off what you want (unfortunately no fried egg). I got vanilla w/ caramel and toffee. The softserve was so insanely creamy <3 a very pleasant experience. they also had some neat "bases" for their ice cream like cinnamon waffle, but i'm too cheap to pay an extra $4 for one. Great great place. I'll be back to try more!

giant soft serve

P.S. the joke in the name is that the menu said "zero zero is the flour used in italy to make dough." so i asked eugi if it was fancy and he scoffed and said no, its the most generic brand there is. then i fantasized about there being an american restaurant named "gold medal" in italy :) hilarious to me and prolly me only