It's Not "Plain"

My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla.

Vanilla is used in many recipes and, as many people have discovered to their horror, forgetting to add it ruins the recipe.

I'm surprised, then, when so many people (including a very special person in my life who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are Diane Brader) refer to anything vanilla as "plain." The term "plain vanilla" is used - often in a derogatory fashion - to describe something that is boring.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Vanilla is aromatic and delicious. It is one of the few substances that enhances virtually everything.

It is far from "plain."

Diane will offer ice cream as dessert in the evening. She rattles off a laundry list of flavors she has accumulated in the freezer. I usually, but not always, choose vanilla. This often starts an interrogation where Diane asks me about specific other flavors she has offered, but I stay with vanilla. I am then, of course, mocked for wanting "plain" ice cream.

Diane and I visited our nephew Brad's Orange Leaf frozen yogurt store when we were in Missouri last month. He has sixteen flavors available every day.

I chose vanilla.

"Don't you want something with flavor," Diane asks?

Vanilla is a flavor; and a remarkably deep and delicious one at that.

There is nothing "plain" about my favorite ice cream flavor.