Avocado paleta by bhamsandwich.

Dish of the week: Paletas
Where: Mount Pleasant farmers’ market, Friendship Heights Whole Foods

With most of July and all of August still ahead, this endless heatwave is making us scramble for any icy refreshment we can find. If you haven’t passed out from heat exhaustion yet, try cooling down with a familiar childhood treat — a popsicle, or, better yet, a paleta.

Paletas are a Latin American take on the classic popsicle. Rather than just frozen sugar water, paletas are made with chunks of fresh fruit and sometimes milk. (We like to think this makes it okay to indulge a bit — it’s fruit, so it must be healthy, right?) Paletas also come in some flavors that would not be considered usual to some palates, like cucumber, tamarind, and avocado. This has inspired a recent artisan popsicle movement, with vendors dreaming up flavors that range from the off-beat (blackberry sweet corn) to the sublime (rose petal).

Everyone likes to complain that New York gets all the good food trends first, but D.C. now has its very own paleta cart, just in time for this blistering string of 100 degree days. Pleasant Pops will be selling their frozen fruit bars at the Mt. Pleasant farmers’ market this summer. They have 60 different flavors, though offerings vary depending on the season (the pops are made using fruit from local farms). Current flavors include strawberries and cream, peaches and ginger, and cucumber chili.

If you can’t make it to the market, the Friendship Heights Whole Foods store has also started carrying agave-sweetened paletas in the coffee bar in flavors like coconut almond sesame. Either way, stay cool out there!