Ice cream pop-up to be held in San Francisco this weekend

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Friday, July 22, 2016
Ice cream pop-up to be held in SF this weekend
With the weekend right around the corner, we have the scoop on activities for you to enjoy. We've partnered with the team at Hoodline to bring you what's new and happening right now in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We've partnered with the team at Hoodline - the hyperlocal neighborhood website - to bring you what's new and happening this weekend in San Francisco. With the temperatures warming up, it's the perfect time to try a freshly-churned scoop of ice cream from Churn Urban Creamery.

For Rica Sunga-Kwan, the pop up is the culmination of a dream. After 10 years of working in fashion, she cashed in all of her savings to buy equipment, a freezer cart on wheels and an umbrella. She dedicated herself to studying and learning the art of making the perfect batch of ice cream. And within a year, she started churning fresh, organic ice cream from Bay Area ingredients. The result is creamy-goodness in unusual flavors with a mission: to support seasonality, the environment and sustainability.

"I start with the ingredient, and then I make ice cream with that! I like using a lot of herbs in my flavors, I like playing with savories," said Sunga-Kwan.

Sunga-Kwan says she often goes to the weekly farmers market and buys out whatever fruit is the juiciest and ripest. It's how she came up with her plum basil flavor, which is fragrant and sweet, with brightness provided by the basil.

She met ABC7 News Anchor Natasha Zouves at Little City Gardens in the Excelsior. It's where she hand-picks the organic mint for her mint straciatella ice cream. She shared her secret: blanching the herbs quickly helps preserve and capture the delicate flavor. In the mint straciatella, the fresh mint is combined with finely-shaved pieces of dark chocolate from San Francisco. Sunga-Kwan says coming up with exotic flavors is all about trial and error.

"It's a lot of fun and it's much better than sitting at a desk all day! I have a flavor called rosemary olive oil. It took about 30 batches to make, but eventually it worked out. It's all about playing around and tinkering with things," Sunga-Kwan said.

Rosemary olive oil is made with coconut milk and coconut cream. Sunga-Kwan says about 25% of her flavors are dairy-free and vegan.

This weekend you can try her perfected rosemary olive oil recipe, as well as chai chocolate cardamom, roasted banana pudding, lemon thyme and creme brulee. Flavors change every week for this pop up!

You can spot her special freezer cart and striped umbrella on Saturday, July 23rd at 549 Hayes Street from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., as well as on Sunday, July 24th, at 375 Valencia Street from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

To see Churn SF's current pop up locations, click here.

If you want it brought straight to your door in San Francisco or Daly City, Churn SF also delivers their fresh ice cream! To learn more, click here.

Keep checking back here for more upcoming events! Click here to visit Hoodline.