Pickle-Flavored Ice Cream Is the Stuff of Pregnancy Craving Dreams

You’d travel far and wide (or send your partner far and wide) to satisfy a pregnancy craving. So how does New York City sound? The city’s Upper West Side neighborhood is home to a new restaurant that’s offering pickle-flavored soft serve, and it’s everything you never knew you wanted.

For $5, you can try the sweet and salty treat at Lucky Pickle Dumpling Co. (They also have matcha and chocolate dip flavors.) To get the flavor—and color—just right, the chefs use cucumber juice. And these folks know what they’re doing; owner Jacob Hadjigeorgis is the force behind two other pickle-themed joints: Jacob’s Pickles and Maison Pickle.

While 90 percent of pregnant women have food cravings, experts can’t quite nail down why, chalking it up to changing hormones. Indulging now and again is fine, but if you find yourself craving soft serve often, make sure you’re going to a reputable joint. In years past, soft serve has landed on lists of foods to avoid during pregnancy because of listeria concerns. That risk has nothing to do with ingredients (soft serve is still made pasteurized milk; _un_pasteurized milk is sometimes linked to listeria), but rather machinery. If the dispensing machine isn’t kept clean, bacteria can begin to grow in the tubes.

Pickle-flavored ice cream isn’t even close to the strangest pregnancy craving we’ve heard about. From toothpaste and Oreos to tomato soup and M&Ms, see some crazy combinations here.