Persian and cream

In addition to wonderfully cheap fresh fruits and vegetables, —at the base of the Yolo Causeway on the Davis side (46710 County Road 32B)—sells Persian ice cream made by the Golnazar ice-cream factory in San Ramon. One of the flavors, faloudeh, is a sorbet with only four ingredients: water, sugar, rose water, rice noodles. The latter adds a fun, crunchy texture to the achingly sweet and strongly rose-flavored treat. The traditional way to eat this is with a squeeze of lemon or some sour cherries, and the sour is sorely needed to counteract the sweet. The saffron pistachio flavor proudly proclaims on the front that it contains “real cream chips” which are made of, yes, cream. The bright-yellow ice cream is dense and stretches like gelato, probably due to high milk-fat content. The saffron punch is hefty and the buttery mouthfeel is decadent. It’s hard to tell the crunch of the cream chips from the pistachio, but my happy taste buds didn’t really care.