Frank aborted his trip to Burning Man and came to San Francisco instead, so we traipsed about town looking for the best Frozen Yogurt (referred to as froyo). First stop was Joe’s Ice Cream on Geary at 18th Avenue, but they no longer had froyo on the menu, alas. The peanut butter chocolate and blueberry cheesecake flavors were very good, though, creamy and delightful on the tongue. The peanut butter chocolate flavor was perfectly balanced, with neither flavor outdoing the other, but the blueberry cheesecake was just a bit too much blueberry, and drowned out the cream cheese. The waffle cone was crispy and not too sweet, and served as a wonderful background for the creams.
Next up was Lilly’s Yogurt, on Octavia at Union Streets. The former site of a Yogurt Bar, the new store had the typical Taylor yogurt machines pumping out frozen yogurt. We each got a medium: Frank’s Cable Car Chocolate with blue berries and kiwi chunks atop it, and I got Vanilla Bean with strawberries and walnuts. These yogurts were pretty bland and boring, with a chalky mouth feel.
After that, we headed back home to UGH because John had made carnitas and burrito fixings, so we all had burritos – I had a burrito filled with rice and beans, guacamole, onions, salsa, etc, while everyone else had carnitas burritos.
Sunday, our froyo quest took us to Chinatown to the small chain tuttimelon. I ordered the yogurt crepe: a fresh made crepe filled with coconut yogurt, and topped with pineapple chunks, crushed almonds, and strawberry sauce. Frank got some other flavor. The yogurt was quite tart and yogurty tasting, and the coconut flakes in the yogurt worked really well with the pineapple chunks, although not so well with the almonds. The crepe was fresh, but slightly rubbery, and I ate it like enjera bread after an Ethiopian meal, as it had soaked up the flavors of the toppings. This was our favorite place.
From there, we headed to get some food, and we had Chinese brocolli in oyster sauce, bok choi in garlic, steamed fish balls, and prawn egg foo young. Finally, we wandered around North Beach and had a cafe au lait at Cafe Triete’s original location before heading home.
Monday, our last yogurt destination was Icebee on Mission at 4th Street. This is a self-serve place that sells by the ounce, much like a salad bar. They have the same Cielo and YoCream flavors as the rest of the places, so I tried the cookies and cream flavor and capuccino in a swirl, topped with a bunch of weird stuff like peanut butter cups, maraschino cherries, flaked coconut. The yogurt was ok, and because I could control the portion size better, this was a better value than the other places.
From there, we headed to Golden Boy Pizza back in North Beach, on Green at Grant Streets, which we had wanted to patronize the night before, but the streets were too crowded and parking too scarce. This night, though, was much less crowded and we easily found nearby parking. We each had a slice of the Veggie Pesto pizza. They serve their pizza in square slices, and the crust is a medium-deep-dish with a slightly Chicago-like texture, but much more crispy on the bottom, which was really good. Not too much bread that way, and it held up well to the pesto and wet veggies like tomatoes and zucchini.
After pizza, we wandered around Grant street, window shopping and looking in all the empty storefronts, of which there were far too many. That grew boring, and we ended up at the Hole in the Wall, where draft beer was had, then to the Eagle, where a diet coke was consumed. A cute scruffy boy was all flirty, but he darted away before I had the chance to say hello to him.
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