Natural Frozen Yogurt Places in DC

When I was walking around Georgetown last night, I was baffled to find that the space formerly occupied by CD Warehouse was turning into yet another "natural" frozen yogurt shop. Very originally named Iceberry, is froyo store number 4 to open in downtown DC. Three of those stores (including the pending Iceberry) opened just this summer alone. This booming concept of the "healthy" sweet treat is the answer to the prayers of thousands of organic-loving yuppies in this city. With the arrival of froyo shop #4, yuppies are increasingly pressured to pledge allegiance to one particular stand and defend them via posts on Yelp.com. Looking at this from the outside, I want to give my opinion on each of these froyo stands - just for the hell of it.

Sweet Green
The first froyo store (to my knowledge) to open in DC, this store is all the way at the end of M Street in Georgetown, started by a couple of Georgetown grads in a small space that looked like a sushi bar in its prior life. Their main appeal was their fresh make-it-yourself salads with endless toppings. In my opinion, the froyo here is the best - with a good selection of toppings, it's the only place that has lady finger cookies which is way better than the other "goodies" the stores below offer. Oh, and the workers are young, fun, and at least look like they enjoy their job.

Tangy Sweet

I was surprised to see how long the line was for this place. Conveniently located at Dupont Circle across from Cafe Japone, the only reason I stood on line was because a man (who happened to be the owner) offered my friends and I free froyo. Let me comment about the appearance. The inside looks like a public restroom with chairs and funky lights. The tables that come out of the walls look like glowing, color-changing urinal posts. The atmosphere is complete with peach-colored walls and stench of wet rag and paint.
Back to the froyo: unlike Sweet Green, they offer 3 flavors: original, pomegranate, and green tea. Being unadventurous, I had the original with coconut, strawberry, and blackberry. The froyo was OK - the only issue I have is that they skimp out on the toppings. For the 3 times I've been there, my cup averaged 2 blackberries, about 3 slices of strawberry, and a few flakes of coconut.
Farce.

Mr. Yogato
I haven't been there yet - and I don't think I will even bother to try. My coworkers told me about their experience - mostly the long lines and weird decor (better than smelly). Yogato amps it up with additional flavors such as peach and mojito. That's not all - they offer an even bigger selection of toppings, including ingredients that they probably pulled out of the shelves of a fraternity pantry. They include: olive oil, wheat germ, and honey - just to name a few. I have no idea what kind of deranged person would put this in their dessert. It really is just plain gross. Oh, and each additional topping is 75 cents - a bit overpriced for a couple raspberries, in my opinion.

It looks like DC has a new obsession. May the power of froyo prevail, and I look forward to trying Iceberry. The popularity of this "healthy" alternative is probably to counter the booming cupcake business. Something to be discussed in a future post.

Tropic Blunder

I was fortunate to see a free pre-screening of this movie with a few of my friends - fortunate, because it was for free. I would not pay $10.50 to see this movie.

To be fair, I thought the same thing when I first saw Wedding Crashers. But it was until I bought the movie I realized that I could watch it over and over again while quoting it in almost any social setting, winning the respect of friends and colleagues. I'm not sure if I can say the same about Tropic Thunder. The concept is great, but they didn't quite deliver the potential for social domination. The jokes were OK, but they tried too hard to make them funny. It felt as though they took a plot and installed punch lines in random places which produced a choppy flow of dialogue.

It's obvious that this movie is meant to be "ground-breaking," an effort to pave a road for a new kind of comedy (i.e. Superbad, Napoleon Dynamite, American Pie). The foremost one is having Robert Downey Jr. play a black guy - well, a caucasian Australian actor who plays a black guy in a movie that isn't actually being filmed. Reminiscent of the black face minstrels from the 19th and early 20th century, it's tucked far enough into the past that it's hard say it's "too early for that." But if you do, and say that it's racist - you have just fallen into the Hollywood trap of word-of-mouth advertising.

Next is the current obsession of infertile couples in the world - Asian babies. Enough said.

The final element they put in was a dancing, hairy, fat guy. I couldn't decide whether I hated it it wasn't funny, or because he was played by Tom Cruise. Maverick dressed in a fat suit with some extra hair on his arms dancing to Flo Rida... I personally don't see the humor in that. Sorry Tom. I'm sure the Xenu was really proud of the 5 minute dancing scene you did at the ending credits. What a waste of film.

Otherwise, the movie was good in featuring an all-star cast including Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Mickey Rooney, with cameos by Tobey McGuire and more.

Oh, and how could I forget about the amount of product placement in this! TiVO and Diet Coke are mentioned consistently throughout the film. Booty Sweat (a soft drink) is made up by the movie, but is similar to the Korean drink, Pocari Sweat. Apparently the fake ads that are featured in the beginning of the movie has gained popularity where they have decided to put the actual product on real shelves. And people out there really think that advertising doesn't affect behavior...

Where did stuffwhitepeoplelike go?

Their link doesn't work anymore. Glitch? Or sudden death?

It is alarming how attached I am to the weblog, because I'm not white. On the other hand, maybe it has to do with the fact that I was #11 on the list (Asian Girls) of stuff white men like. Despite that, my scarf-wearing, expensive sandwich eating, sarcastic, children's-game-playing adult friends say that it's OK.

If the blog really has been erased, it has to be one of the greatest underground yuppie things to hit the internet.

Oh well. Time to go grab more coffee.

UPDATE: It's back up.