I scream you scream
Yes, we all scream for ice cream. While on my Bali super trip I decided to spend my last 6 days in Ubud. Ubud is a city located in south central Bali. It’s a tourist center and it’s a good jumping off point for the last few activities I wanted to participate in- whitewater rafting, elephant viewing, and volcano viewing. Another benefit to Ubud is that I’ve found it to have the best food I’ve eaten in Bali. The restaurants are varied and plentiful. Plus an “expensive” meal by Ubud standards runs around $15. One of my favorite foods in Ubud is the ice cream. There seems to be an ice cream vendor on every corner and the flavors include the traditional vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry as well as things like avocado (it’s delicious), dragon fruit (have you seen this fruit? The ice cream is gorgeous), lemongrass, ginger, and pickle with salty peanut and honeycomb (I tried a sample- gross). It’s not just the flavors that make the ice cream. The ice cream in Ubud is velvety and delicious. I don’t know if it’s the heat, the humidity, or what it is but I just love the ice cream in Ubud.
Shortly after I got to Ubud for my final 6 days I decided I would have ice cream after dinner every night. I figured I love the stuff and I only have 6 days so why not enjoy myself. If I changed my mind that would be okay too. I knew that with my travels I probably wouldn’t be around Ubud city at lunch time for ice cream so dinner time would be when I would enjoy the ice cream.
After my first dinner I went for my old stand-by favorite flavor avocado. It was as delicious as I remembered from my first visit to Ubud. My second night I felt full after dinner. No problem! I wandered around the city for an hour. I built up a little bit of an appetite and ordered a small mint leaf with chocolate bits (that’s Balinese for mint chocolate chip). On day 3 I noticed that after dinner I was too full for ice cream. No problem! There’s always day 4! On day 4 I was again too full after dinner for ice cream. I tried walking around the city. That didn’t make me hungry but it did make me have to pee! (TMI I know. Luckily my hotel room had a nice toilet). I was a bit frustrated with myself. I wanted the ice cream, I had made peace with allowing myself to enjoy ice cream but when it came time for ice cream I wasn’t hungry. What was my problem?
Then it hit me- I was saving ice cream for last! If I liked it so much why was I putting it last? I should be eating ice cream for breakfast! Actually I usually woke up craving something savory so ice cream for breakfast wasn’t going to work. How about a mid morning snack? Memories came flooding back from childhood. When I was around 4 my sister had friends visit from Mexico. When we took them to the airport to return to their home country we all sat down at the airport restaurant for dinner. I remember asking my mother if I could have an ice cream sundae for dinner and my mother said...yes! This event was an anomaly. My mother NEVER said yes to ice cream for dinner. Here it is over 50 years later and I still remember this momentous event! So i was incredibly excited to allow myself ice cream for a mid morning snack. I planned it all out. A friend who had been to Bali in the past recommended a restaurant that had lemongrass ice cream. The restaurant happened to be right around the corner from a spa I was scheduled to visit at 11 the next morning. I could leave for the spa early and guarantee my ice cream for the day!
At 9:45 AM I set out for my ice cream journey. When I arrived at the restaurant all the other diners were having their breakfasts. The waitress handed me a menu. I quickly spied the lemongrass ice cream. When she came to take my order I proudly exclaimed, “Lemongrass ice cream please!” She looked at me strangely. She wanted to know if that was all I wanted. I confirmed, yes all I wanted was the ice cream. When the ice cream arrived it was beautiful. And it was tasty! I savored each spoonful as I could sense the wonderment of onlookers. Was this woman actually eating ice cream in the morning? I might as well have been doing shots of tequila. Whatever. I was truly enjoying the experience.
Later that night I didn’t want to destroy my dinner ice cream appetite and I ordered a drink with lychee sorbet in it (why had I not thought of this before?). The next morning before I left Bali for good I had gingerbread and chocolate brownie ice creams on a charcoal bamboo cone (yes it’s good it tastes like vanilla). Now that I’m home I’m missing those icy delicacies and I’m happy I didn’t deny myself the opportunity to enjoy them when I had the chance. Besides, it’s snowing at home!
Beautiful dragon fruit ice cream
I can’t make this stuff up
Delicious lemongrass ice cream
The beautiful view while I ate my lemongrass ice cream