Rice Cream Puddings is often mistaken for an ice cream stand at The Shops at Sunset Place, but the cool treats at the pink and black kiosk are based on rice pudding, a dessert adored around the world.

Owner Aimee Lopez starts her day at 6 a.m. in a commercial kitchen, turning 24 cups of rice into a huge batch of basic pudding (cottage cheese enhances its creamy texture). Once it cools, she divides and customizes it. Many of her flavors -- like pastelito (guava and cheese), coquito (rum and coconut), dulce de leche, coffee, passion fruit -- cater to Latins' love of arroz con leche.

Lopez has a background in fashion -- her Colombian mother is a designer -- and she once had a showroom in the Miami Merchandise Mart. On buying trips to New York, she was charmed by a SoHo rice pudding shop called Rice to Riches. When its owners turned down her offer to franchise, she decided to open a place of her own based on the rice pudding her mom made back home in Cali. Mother and daughter spent a year perfecting the recipe.

Lopez first left home at 16 to study English at Boston University (her conservative parents only let her go because her Cuban dad knew the woman who ran the women's dorm). A year and a half later, a burst appendix sent her back to Cali, but eventually she joined her grandmother in Miami Beach and finished her education with a degree in marketing from the University of Miami and a master's business from Nova Southeastern.

Rice Cream Puddings' flavors also include cinnamon, chocolate, rum raisin, mango and Indian kheer (flavored with cardamom and almonds). Lactose-intolerant customers can call a day ahead to order versions made with Lactaid milk and cheese.

Lopez recently added soft-serve frozen yogurt that can be topped with her homemade fruit sauces, granola, crushed cookies, sprinkles and more, but it's the rice cream fans scream for.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

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