Pinkberry

Anyone who is anyone who reads food blogs (and specifically those based in Los Angeles) knows that the latest, greatest, must-have food item of the moment is a Pinkberry. When I first heard about this, I couldn't quite see what the excitement was about. Frozen yoghurt shops were a thing of the 80's - we used to get them all the time. What could be so fantastic about a frozen yoghurt with stuff on top?

When we were in LA, we passed literally a dozen or more Pinkberry stores - but it wasn't until our last weekend there that DH and I had the chance to wander in and try it for ourselves. We happened to be at the Pantages Theatre, which is at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. What more LA-ish thing to do than eat a Pinkberry smack in the middle of Hollywood?


DH chose the original/pomegranate flavour with carob chips, blackberries and raspberries. I had the original/green tea flavour with Cap'n Crunch cereal, raspberries and oreos.


A couple of things struck me about the Pinkberry store. Firstly that it's a classic case of everything old is new again - it's the same frozen yoghurt shops of my teenage years, just now they sell trendy flavours and have trendy toppings and sell trendy Alessi homewares in the store. They also have uber-cool seating and lighting...but other than all that, it's just another frozen yoghurt joint (and an expensive one at that!). I will say that the toppings looked like they came out of a magazine - perfectly plump berries, artfully arranged carob chips, a perfect mound of Oreo chunks and really white, clean benchtops: it was straight out of Martha Stewart. At this point I was thinking that this yoghurt better taste as thought it came straight from heaven.

So here's the rub - it IS bloody delicious. DH and I happily dug into our trendy concoctions, but then disaster struck when I discovered that my mound of Pinkberry was in fact a mound of air with some Pinkberry around it:


....and as proof it wasn't just me who got totally jipped...DH's was missing the middle as well!


I'm not sure if this is a deliberate act on the part of the Pinkberry company to deny us their product but make it LOOK as though they are giving us lots, or if we just had a particularly incompetent frozen yoghurt twirling lady. Either way, it was a crushing disappointment because that stuff is truly delicious. I will say that I'm still not entirely sure what the excitement is about this stuff (because change the decore and it's back to 1984) but it was a fantastic treat to have on a fun tourist day in Hollywierd.