PROVO — Well, you sure won't find anyplace else like this in these parts.
Provo's Pudding on the Rice is one-of-a-kind for Utah, and maybe for the whole region (a Google search yielded a similar place in, you guessed it, New York City).
As you may have guessed from the name, this is a restaurant that serves, at any one time, 16 types of rice pudding, plus toppings, plus bottled water sporting the place's cute, mod little smiling-spoon logo.
The interior, with its utter whiteness broken by a few touches of bright color, softly glowing tables extending on poles from the ceilings and sleek blue metallic stools, reminded me of a really futuristic airport lounge, assuming the airports of the future are manned by smiling, enthusiastic blond college students serving up a whole new world of rice pudding.
My friend, Becki, and I took a passel of kids to Pudding on the Rice on a recent weekday, assuming that kids and pudding would be a good match. They are, though it took much longer than we expected for the kids to decide among the 16 types of rice pudding enticingly presented in an ice cream parlor-style glass case.
Luckily, they'll let you taste things before you order. Our server was endlessly patient, doling out spoon after spoon as the kids tried to make up their minds. Finally, we gave in and ordered everyone the medium size, which let them each choose two flavors.
You can get traditional cinnamon-and-raisin rice pudding, called Cinnamon Kane here (creative titles abound), but it's hard to choose a been-there, done-that taste with everything else on display. We tasted the majority of what was being offered that day, and everything was good.
Some flavors, like the very sweet blueberry or the simple "Aaamaretto, Gentile Amaretto" (sing it to "Alouette" in your mind), would have benefited from the addition of one of the "accents," such as sweetness-cutting nuts or fresh berries.
But others were just divine on their own. We all loved the Peachy Keen, rice pudding with fresh, locally grown peaches, creamy cheese and a breath of almond, and the rich Macdaddy Macadamia, in which white chocolate ganache and chocolate chips perfectly complement huge, fresh chunks of macadamia nuts.
The kids' favorites (and we thought they were pretty great, too) were the Dream of the Blue Turtle, with milk and dark chocolate, deeply toasted pecans and a glaze of buttery caramel, and the Peter Primate Special, a fresh mixture of walnuts, chocolate chunks and banana cream.
But we all agreed that the star of that day's show was the Marry Marxcapone, a milk-chocolate pudding with mascarpone cheese and fresh raspberries. It's not very sweet but velvet-creamy and satisfying, its sweetness beautifully balanced by the tart, complex berries.
I don't know if that's the best of it, though. On future visits, I hope to try "Espresso Self," Pudding on the Rice's version of tiramisu, Ziggy's Stardust (vanilla and orange) and, the most fun title I read, The Opiate of the Masses, with lemon juice, lemon zest and poppy seeds.
Individual-sized pudding $1.50-$5.25, group sizes $10.50-$40, accents 35¢, water $1.
Pudding on the Rice
Rating: ***
Where: 2293 N. University Parkway, Provo
Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sunday
Payment: Major credit cards accepted
Phone: 375-5007
Wheelchair access: Easy
Stacey Kratz is a freelance writer who reviews restaurants for the Deseret Morning News.
E-mail: skratz@desnews.com