Ice Cream, You Scream

From my book "Not a Bucket List: Turning Fifty":

When I was a girl, I remember that it was hard enough to choose between the three available flavours: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Now you get into an ice cream store and your head starts to spin when you see all the choices. I read somewhere that in Vancouver there is an ice cream store with more than 200 flavours, including roasted garlic, jalapeño and black pepper varieties. Now that would be fun to try!

When I talked to Aidan about ice cream flavours, she said that her definite favourite was violet. “What does it taste like?” I asked. She shook her head thoughtfully. “Hard to describe. It really tastes like… violet.” “Well, I’ve never eaten a violet. What does violet taste like?” She really couldn’t answer.

In Avignon, on a particularly hot day, we went for ice cream. Lauren had a grapefruit flavour, I chose salted caramel and Aidan had violet. I took a spoon of hers, and there was an explosion of an amazingly delicate flavour in my mouth. What did it taste like? I know it sounds silly but the moment I had the purple ice cream in my mouth, I understood, and there was no other way to describe it. It tasted like violet! And it beats the Dalmacja ice cream with fruit and lavender, which we tasted in Dubrovnik.

Most recently, I added some new flavours to my ice cream list, all subtle, tasty and flavourful: pear and parsley; spinach, orange and almonds; rose (all in Poland); and, in Bulgaria, the most unusual treat (seen in the photo here): black Hawaiian ice cream made of coconut water and carbon, which, surprisingly, was the creamiest ice cream I have ever tasted, and one of the most delectable ones. I am now on a quest for unusual and delicious new flavours.