Sundae, Sundae Sunday!

My vacation in California was pretty uneventful. Gloriously, gloriously uneventful. It was just what I wanted: all the comforts of home without actually being (earmuffs, Mom!) responsible for its upkeep.

That’s not to say that my time there wasn’t without its highlights, most of them either in the gym (you better believe I did water aerobics) or in my belly. Assuming you’d just as soon be spared pictures of me in an ill-fitting bathing suit, I’ll stick to the food.

One thing I got a little too used to having in CA was cable. I can’t justify the expense here at home, given my current lifestyle, but I sure can justify laying on my butt during vacation. Enter the Travel Channel, sponsor of many, many hours of entertainment in the past couple weeks.

My favorite Travel Channel show is pretty much hands-down Man v. Food. Adam Richman is the host and succeeds in making me laugh out loud with every episode. And while watching him attempt challenge after challenge is enough to make your own stomach hurt in sympathy, I love learning about all the quirky watering holes he turns up in each destination.

One such destination was San Francisco, and the watering hole in question was the San Francisco Creamery. In the San Francisco episode, Sir Richman was challenged to consume The Kitchen Sink, which consists of “three sliced bananas, scoops of your choice of up to 8 flavors of ice creams, 8 servings of toppings, mounds and mounds of whipped cream, chopped toasted almonds and cherries.” People, this amounts to like, multiple gallons of ice cream! But he did it, bless his heart. Anyway, given my love for ice cream and convenient proximity to the Creamery, I had to go check it out for myself.

Proof I found the right spot:

The San Francisco Creamery is sort of half old-fashioned ice cream parlor, half diner.

At lunch time on a weekday in chilly December, my mom, sister-in-law and I had the place to ourselves. All the better for my bonding experience with the ice cream freezer…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Good girls have to eat a good lunch before they can have dessert.

A VERY good lunch.

I was so hungry when my sandwich arrived that half of it disappeared before I remembered to get a photo, but I think you can appreciate it nonetheless.

Eggplant and the promise of ice cream, all in one meal? I die. This was the grilled eggplant sandwich, which was served on focaccia with a tangy Thai sauce and a ton of other veggies. I dug it.

We were all pretty full after our lunches, but I couldn’t leave without taking on the ice cream for myself. I zeroed right in on the brownie sundae: simple, classic, and quite possibly my favorite dessert in the whole world.

Times 1,543.

Are you grasping the size of this thing? Let’s zoom out a bit.

I should have put something, like my hand or maybe an infant, in the picture as well to give it some scale. You’ll just have to trust me that this was the biggest sundae I have ever had the pleasure of attacking.

Those scoops are the size of softballs.

Believe me, I went at that thing with everything I had, and happily—ice cream is one of my top 5 favorite things, edible or otherwise.

And yet, even with two other (wimpy, dainty ladies!) helping me, this was all the damage we could manage:

That’s the better part of one softball-sized scoop remaining. I hang my head in shame. Clearly, I am not yet ready for a challenge of Man v. Food proportions.

But it was fun trying.

What’s the biggest meal you’ve ever attempted?

I’ll be back soon with a giveaway: a $55 gift certificate to CSN! Check out all their websites for great gift ideas in the meantime: kids backpacks, shoes, fun kitchen toys, you name it.