Showing posts with label frozen yogurt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frozen yogurt. Show all posts

Friday, February 12, 2016

Healthy Dining at Freshii (Boston, MA)

When you eat out as much as I do, and eat as much unhealthy stuff as I do, a dinner filled with salads and healthy options is a welcomed change. A couple weeks ago that change came in the form of a blogger dinner at Freshii in Back Bay.
Freshii
Freshii is a fast food franchise out of Canada that focuses on fresh, healthy items like salads, wraps, juices and such. They have multiple locations in Boston including one on Dartmouth St in Back Bay.

We tasted samples of quite a few things during dinner including the popular Metaboost Salad (field greens, spinach, kale, mangos, carrots, edamame, almonds, goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette)
Freshii

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Bite-Sized Frozen Yogurt with Stonyfield's Wiki Pearls

It's pretty cool when the worlds of science and food collide. At least one Harvard professor is doing so with WikiPearl. The idea comes from natural fruit skin, where the flesh is protected from the environment by an edible skin. They've partnered with Stonyfield for this edible packaging idea in their frozen yogurt pearls, creating frozen yogurt you can eat with your hands.

WikiPearl

For me, the idea has not completely replaced regular retail packaging, since you still have to package the wiki pearls, but one day we can hopefully minimize it since you don't have to package each pearls separately. The WikiPearl skin doesn't melt so putting two together won't make them stick to each other or cross contaminate the others. You can see below the frozen yogurt inside a pearl. With Stonyfield's products, the skin is also flavored, creating different combinations between the yogurt and the skin.
WikiPearl
Plus, ice cream or froyo as finger food is fun! I think they'll be great at parties. Or even when I'm craving ice cream at home, since these pearls as bite-sized. Portion control. Works way better than plopping down with a pint of ice cream and a spoon.

Right now, Stonyfield's WikiPearls can be found at Whole Foods Markets across New England. You can give them a try for your next house party. No need to wash ice cream cups and spoons!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Go Greek Yogurt: A Greek Yogurt Bar in Beverly Hills

Combining the popularity of Greek yogurt and Pinkberry, Go Greek Yogurt provides a place in Beverly Hills to get authentic, imported Greek yogurt with various toppings. The yogurt is flown in directly from Greece.

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There are three options for the Greek yogurt, based on the fat content. The most authentic one is 10% fat but you can also get a 2% or a nonfat Greek yogurt.
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The 10% obviously tastes the best, but the 2% is still smooth and creamy. I can't eat the Greek yogurts they sell at the grocery stores without adding something to it, but this one I can eat by itself. The yogurt is stored in terracotta bowls, and when you order some to go they will also pack it up in terracotta pots. I want to get one just as a souvenir!

Before moving on to the toppings, don't miss the two most important sections: the preserves and honey. They have authentic preserves that the Greeks eat with their yogurt, including carrot, sour cherry, and rose preserves.
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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Now at Pinkberry: Greek Yogurt and Great Savory Bowls!

Did you know that Pinkberry now has greek yogurt? Not a "greek" frozen yogurt, but a bonafide greek yogurt, and they use it to make some great bowls! Yes, Pinkberry's not just about froyo anymore.

I was recently invited to the Pinkberry headquarters in Santa Monica to do a blind tasting of greek yogurts and try their new Powerbowls. When else will I get a chance to visit their headquarters??

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When I eat yogurt at home, I usually just add fruit and granola to it - maybe honey. That's it, and you probably do, too. But Pinkberry has been getting quite creative with their greek yogurt! I was amazed by their Sunflower Cucumber combination in which they top their greek yogurt (named "Pinkberrygreek") with cucumber, sunflower seed bites (like sunflower cookies), olive oil, and chili powder.
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You don't have to have dessert at Pinkberry, you can have something savory too! I never thought of making something like this with yogurt, and was very pleasantly surprised. It was sweet and savory, silky and crunchy. This bowl has a very Mediterranean flavor to it, and will make a great light meal or snack. I'm already itching to go to a Pinkberry to get this.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Blanc Haute Yogurt: The Rolls Royce of Froyo in Beverly Hills

After Pinkberry, there was Yogurtland, Red Mango, all the way to Fro Play (no I'm totally serious). Thinking that frozen yogurt had pretty much jumped the shark, when I heard about Blanc back in 2009 I didn't pay much attention even though it touted being a "premium" yogurt, organic, etc with "premium toppings". It wasn't until I finally went to their summer launch party did I find out - it really is an upgraded, sophisticated version of froyo.

Appropriately located in Beverly Hills, the modern decor is stark white and minimalist - my kind of place.

Blanc offers four flavors everyday, at least half of which would be 100% organic, and none of which uses high fructose corn syrup. The owner and founder, Leo Leonard, personally works on the recipes with the dairy factory who makes them in small batches.

You can find the usual fruit topping suspects (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mangoes) except that everything is organic and looks fresher and plumper than anything I've seen at Pinkberry or Yogurtland recently. They don't even peel and cut the bananas until you order them here.
On the not-so-expected side: black mission figs! And juicy amarena cherries (these are amazing with the vanilla) along with chocolate-dipped truffle-stuffed figs, Rabitos. Not into fruits? Top your creme brulee yogurt with Valrhona chocolate pearls, truffles imported from Spain, or organic carrot cake made by a local baker.

Some of the rotating flavors you can find here include creme brulee, chai tea latte, organic peach passionfruit, and of course organic vanilla and some sort of chocolate. There's no tart flavor in their vanilla, unlike Pinkberry's plain, because apparently that tartness comes from the addition of citric acid. If you want tart, get the peach passionfruit.

In about a month or so they will be rolling out the "crepe flute". Forget waffle cones, this crepe flute is crisp and more delicately crumbly than thick waffle cones. It complements the vanilla yogurt very very well.
The prices here are a little more expensive than, say, Yogurtland, where the small yogurt is $4 and each topping is $0.40 but the higher quality of the yogurt and especially the toppings shows, and is worth it.

Blanc Haute Yogurt
9465 Charleville Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(310) 281-2633
www.blancbh.com
Blanc Haute Yogurt on Urbanspoon

Disclosure: This was a free tasting hosted by Blanc.

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