What to choose, what to choose?

With 238 flavors on display, La Casa Gelato in Vancouver, Canada might just be the largest ice cream shop in the world.   It’s certainly one of the most overwhelming.  Arranged in a horseshoe shape, the shop offers pretty much every flavor you could ever want, and maybe a few you *wouldn’t* want (but might be willing to try).

Every time I drop by La Casa – essentially whenever I go to Vancouver – I take the time to work my way around the horseshoe, tasting all the ice creams I might consider purchasing.  Then, once I know what I want, I sample a few of the “weirder” flavors.  Like hot buttered popcorn.  And Guinness.  And kimchi.  And wasabi.   I have this vision in my head of a back-room, ice cream laboratory, where mad dairy inventors with lab coats and crazy white hair (a la Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future) are throwing ingredients in pots and pans and cackling like mad men.  “You think they’ll go for Kung Pao Chicken flavor?”  “Who cares, let’s make it!”

I have no idea how much wasabi ice cream they sell at La Casa Gelato, but I’m glad they offer it.  (To be honest, it’s not bad!)  La Casa is pretty much the opposite of Wow Place #2, Thip Samai, where they make only 4 different kinds of Pad Thai.    It just goes to show that we humans like to have choices, even if the decision process sometimes tuckers us out.

The next time I’m in Vancouver, I’m biting the bullet and going for the kimchi ice cream. Because sometimes your taste buds just need a little WOW.