#88. Have an ice cream that contains vegetables at Dominion Ice Cream.

Bikini season is coming up and working at a pizza parlor doesn’t do wonders for my figure. Needless to say, I’m trying to watch what I eat. And what better way to start my first day of dieting with some veggies… in ice cream.

 

Vegetable ice cream isn’t unique to Baltimore, but the city itself is a bizarre and creative city, much as veggie ice cream is bizarre and certainly creative. And full of bad drivers. Very, very bad drivers. After work I met two of my lovely cousins, Annie and Maggie, on Charles Street right across from Johns Hopkins University. We all have a bit of an ice cream obsession and when I told Maggie about this entry, she jumped on the bandwagon and dragged Annie along with her.

Honestly, Maggie and I were the only people I know who became excited at the prospect of veggie ice cream. Everyone else responded with a grimace and/or a polite “…well, if that’s what YOU like.” Annie (who is also my best friend, who I will also be dragging along on more adventures) was not excited. She screwed up her face every time I mentioned the words “vegetable” and “ice cream” together when we were making plans. I told her, keep an open mind and you’ll eat your words. But even I did not know what to expect, but it’s weird and rare so I was naturally chomping at the bit to get downtown today.

After almost 30 minutes of driving akin to being caught in a stampede of wildebeests, I finally made it to Charles Street. Maggie, a new lawyer (if you ever get in trouble…), was kind enough to spring for my ice cream unasked. There were a lot of veggie flavors (see the website for all of them!) as well as delicious looking, more traditional flavors for the faint of heart. Maggie ordered sweet potato pie, Annie ordered sweet corn and I, never passing up an opportunity for the bizarre, chose beet flavored ice cream. We all dug in and the heavens opened up. I sampled all three flavors as well as a cucumber flavored ice cream and all of them were delicious, creamy and delicately flavored. The sweet potato tasted similar to a creamy sweet potato pie; the sweet corn tasted almost like a creamed corn but lighter and sweeter; the beet was creamy but wasn’t too-sweet and you could definitely taste the beet; the cucumber was very light and refreshing, almost like a sorbet. Not only did these ice creams taste good, they also have all the vitamins, antioxidants and minerals of a serving of vegetables, making even veggie-haters melt (I love puns). I loved everything I tried. Annie and Maggie were also impressed. “Okay, I ate my words,” proclaimed Annie as she finished off her last bite of sweet corn. She ate them pretty fast too, I might add. Har Har Har.

Baltimore is such an eclectic city that I was not surprised to learn that there exists a place like Dominion Ice Cream in one of its many unique neighborhoods. The Charles Street area surrounding the universities in Baltimore (JHU, Loyola U, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Towson, MICA, The University of Baltimore, etc.) is a young and vibrant part of the city full of unique restaurants, clothing stores, odds and ends. The people moving into this part of Baltimore are young professionals and college students looking to try new things and add some spice to Baltimore. This cultural, social and economic community is the result of this recent population growth and the increasing sizes and reach of the local colleges. As a college student from the boonies, I can tell you right now that a city full of interesting places to be is an overwhelming, but exciting, prospect.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get more veggies in my diet this week when I’m down Charles Street for my sister’s graduation this week….