Attention health conscious sweet freaks of Hoboken: Miami Rice is the answer to your prayers.
Open since October of 2009, Miami Rice is a rice pudding shop on Garden Street and First Street, that also serves frozen yogurt, smoothies, and gelato. All without dashing your hopes for achieving that swimsuit body by summer.
A bit overwhelmed by the choices of flavors of rice pudding - there are 35 flavors to choose from - I asked manager Raymond Medina for some guidance.
"The cannoli rice pudding is definitely our most popular. We go through about 8 jugs a day," he said. "It's really good - and healthy."
Indeed.
I ordered myself a small cannoli rice pudding ($3.95) and I was not disappointed. I have had rice pudding before, but I can't say it has been a huge favorite or a food I sought out very often.
The rice pudding at Miami Rice may force me to change my ways. It was delightfully sweet, with a milky chewiness and a chocolate chip or two punctuating each bite. If cannoli's aren't your cup of tea, a sampling of other flavors includes peanut butter, cinnamon bun, lemon poppy, maple and traditional rice pudding.
But is it really healthy? Yes. Rice pudding has two-thirds less calories than ice cream. It's around 130 calories for a small serving or 3 Weight Watchers points if you are into that sort of thing.
I also tried a small mango frozen yogurt ($4.05), which is a non-fat, active culture yogurt. Also quite healthy. It was not as sweet (or as good) as the rice pudding but it was definitely refreshing and a lighter alternative to ice cream.
In keeping with the low-calorie theme of this visit, I washed down my treats with a diet rootbeer ($1.50). It was good, but mostly it just made me wonder about making a rootbeer float with rice pudding in place of ice cream. New menu item? One can only hope.
Miami Rice is open daily until 9 p.m. and until 10 p.m. on Saturdays. Delivery and party platters are available.
