PICCO: South End

anise hyssop from urbangardencasual.com

Last night, to cap off a great anniversary dinner with my husband (at Market in the W Hotel), we decided to get ice cream from PICCO in the South End.  PICCO ice cream can be intense.  The dark chocolate ice cream is dense and kind of bitter – in a good way.  Even the dark chocolate sorbet packs a punch.  That is usually my go to treat.  But, last night I took a left turn and went for Hyssop.  I knew it was some type of plant, but I had no idea about the flavor.  Apparently, it’s black licorice/anise.  I did a little wikipedia research and found out that “anise hyssop” is a wildflower in the mint family.

It was crazy good.  It was more herbal than I expected and was a lovely green color.  I ate up the whole serving and I’m still thinking about it today.  Take a chance on it.  If you like licorice, you’ll love it.

As an aside, PICCO’s pizza is also really good.  At least I can speak for the Alsatian pizza.  It’s the only one I get! It has sautéed onions, shallots, garlic, crème fraiche, bacon (!) and gruyere.

T Stop:  Orange Line, Back Bay

Ron’s Ice Cream and Bowling: Hyde Park

photo: cambridgeportpto.org

I love ice cream and I have a lot of favorite ice cream places scattered around the Greater Boston area.  Ron’s Ice Cream is definitely one of the best.  I can’t remember how I heard about this place, but I do know that it ranks #3 in the world in some National Geographic Ten Best list and it was featured on Good Morning America.  The other thing I know is that you can get amazing ice cream there and if you want (and I haven’t) you can play a string of candlepin bowling while you wait.  Personally, my favorite ice cream flavors are Coffee Madness (creamy coffee with chocolate chips, oreo and almonds), Peanut Butter Explosion (creamy peanut butter ice cream with reese’s peanut butter chunks) and Grape Nut (the BEST grape nut ice cream ever with crunchy grape nuts).

Also, hands down, Ron’s (actually his wife) makes the best ice cream cakes ever.  The small cakes are just ice cream, and the bigger ones are ice cream and cake. They are discussion worthy.  Order in advance, but they often will have some available in the case.

T Stop: 32 bus or Commuter Rail-Hyde Park Station