Bittersweet Ice Cream

Sometimes it just falls into my lap, and just in time for summer. Joe and I are often on DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene (Bonita and Urban Spring are both there) and he stopped into BitterSweet for ice cream after a slew of 90° days. I was pretty jealous because he can eat whatever he wants while I adhere to this crazy project. But as he was sampling the Coconut Vegan Ice Cream and Passionfruit Sorbet, we realized quickly that the woman standing with the hipster at the counter was the ice cream maker herself. Her Mexican accent was a struggle for me but my Texan boyfriend was able to keep up and "translate" when necessary. And he got us an invitation down to the basement where the ice cream is made. Dish of Coconut Ice Cream in hand, we followed her down.

Adriana works in the basement. Not a kitchen, not even a storeroom, it's a basement. One small fridge, one ice cream churner, a freezer of frozen passionfruit, and that's about it. But she seems to have a ball with it. As long as the flavor sells, she can make up whatever she wants (though it seems customers mostly just want vanilla and chocolate, much to her disapproval). It's one of two jobs she juggles as a single mother of a nine-year-old and a thirteen-year-old whom she just sent off to visit family in Mexico for the summer so she can spend more time working here and at a retirement home for women. Talk about bittersweet. Adriana has a big smile, teasing us about our lack of culinary skills and taunting us with ideas of Tequila Ice Cream and Avocado Ice Cream. As we walked back into the heat, she said "Someday you'll come back and make ice cream with me!"

If there is tequila and avocados involved, count me in!