Iceberry

ICEBERRY FROZEN YOGURT
ICE CREAM
http://www.iceberryus.com
Food Decor Service Cost
19 15 13 $6

Summer 2009
I am officially listing Iceberry as my favorite cold-treat place in the area. I’ve tried Mr. Yogato, SweetGreen, tangysweet, Shilla, Pitango Gelato, Something Sweet, Coldstone Creamery, Milwaukee’s Frozen Custard, Maggie Moo’s, Baskin Robbin’s, Dolcezza, Boccato, and Yogen Fruz.

Sure sure sure. I love my pat bing soo at Shilla like nothing other, but I can’t be expected to gorge on a $9 trough of craziness at the drop of the hat. I also love Milwaukee, but its sometimes a bit rich for my tastes. And I won’t even mention the ridiculously delicious Banana Split at Central, but that’s a little more “special occasion” than your standard fro-yo run.

I don’t care what you say, the honeydew yogurt here is amazing. I can eat it plain, but I love topping it with gummy bears as well. The flavor is tart and refreshing. It quenches my thirst, but it cleanses my palate enough so that I can devour the whole cup myself.

The portions are a little chintzy here–the yogurt is poured into the cup as an outer-ring and this hollow in the bottom is strategically covered by a swirl on top. Very sneaky if you ask me. They have frequenter punch cards, but they only punch per visit, so when I was with my family and we bought four yogurts, they were only going to punch it once. Can you believe that? I tried arguing with them, but they were really stubborn (at the Chantilly location) and allowed us to get two stamps, but “Only this one time”. Geez. Also, they don’t offer samples at the Georgetown location. I understand because they only have three or four flavors, but still. I like that they’re conveniently located and stay open late though~

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Chocolate and Strawberries Cozy Yogurts~ Mom, Sister, Brother iceberry5

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli, Cupcake for Breakfast

Maple Frosting & Chocolate Cake Cupcake, Coffee Spinach & Cheese Ravioli with Basil and Parmesan Reggiano

For breakfast: Baked & Wired‘s new cupcake, Teresa’s Birthday Cupcake, which is chocolate cake with maple frosting. Paired with a few sips of coffee to balance out the sweetness. The cake was deliciously moist and almost fudgey, but the frosting was too sweet and I ended up scraping most of it off.

Lunch: Raisins, Parmesan reggiano in the container, matzah, un-frosted shredded wheat, blueberry marshmallow/yogurt concoction. Spinach and cheese ravioli with basil sprinkled with Parmesan reggiano, Shilla chocolate coconut roll cake on the side.

Croque Monsieur

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This was actually a Croque Madame that I enjoyed at Kafe Leopold on Labor Day, but I couldn’t finish it all so ate the eggs off if it, saved it and ate it for lunch today. Strangely, all the things I hate (mustard, pickles) come together perfectly in this sandwich and taste absolutely delicious.

I also found a Totoro furoshiki when I was cleaning up the apartment this weekend. I thought this was a handkerchief, but I realized it was a totally awesome furoshiki and I made use of it as soon as possible~

Shilla Choco-Coconut roll cake slice to the left of the sandwich and some Cape Cod Cracked Sea Salt (40% reduced fat) Potato Chips. I don’t like potato chips and never eat them, but these are delicious.  Watermelon yogurt in the background that I didn’t eat. The chocolate coconut roll cake really reminded me of German Chocolate cake that I used to eat when I was little. It was missing a little bit of caramel, but the general taste was still there.

I keep going places with my parents and every time I’m out with them, we go to the local Shilla and load up on pastries (Literally, fill a nice, woven basket with pastries).  It’s ridiculous. I need to eat my way through a napoleon, the rest of this roll cake, a custard bun, cream cheese croissant, and a steamed castella. Not to mention I broke down at the Asian Market and bought a whole roll of Matcha Castella. Hopefully the fridge will keep them nice and fresh for me.

A Week of ‘Leftover’ Bento

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Aug 31st – These are some of the leftovers from making the special fashion show bento on Sunday. On the left is some okonomiyaki-takoyaki balls with Remy’s brother from Ratatouille sticking out. The red container behind him holds the different sauces (kewpie, okonomiyaki, bonito flakes). The smaller picture to the left shows the okonomiyaki all dressed-up and ready to eat. On the left is a char siu bao (nikuman in Japanese) and some pieces of a brownie cake cookie thing I picked up from the local Korean bakery.

Sept 1st – A plain turkey and roasted-red-pepper-hummus sandwich and some chex mix to snack on.

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Sept 2nd – These were leftovers from a great meal I had the day before with my friend Stephanie. Stephanie needed cheering up from her horrible job so I brought a goodie bag and we went out to eat at a local Indian restuarant named Jaipur. We had ordered Paneer-Pakora, Garlic Naan, and each an entree (chicken for her, lamb curry for me). I also ordered some naan and Kadhai Chholey to go for my boyfriend with like three containers of mint chutney. As you can imagine, we both went home with bags full of food and I used them to make lunch for me and my boyfriend. My Ms. Bento holds some rice and Rarah Maas with some garlic naan on the side. White bean and walnut manju for dessert and chai tea to drink.

Sept 3rd – Another plain turkey and roasted-red-pepper-hummus sandwich and Shilla brownie-bread for dessert.

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Sept 4th – This isn’t a bento, but it’s made with all the love leftover from our five year anniversary the day before!The bread is from our dinner the night before at Inox, and has turkey, roasted red pepper hummus and oodles of baby spinach. Shilla bakery coffee manju and a canteloupe yogurt.

Vosges Haut Chocolat

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com

Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆

Bars, Take 2

I wanted to give Vosges another try, determined to find at least one more bar that would keep me entertained or justify their price tag. The Red Fire bar was good, but not $7.50 good. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), I spotted some interesting flavors at my local Wegman’s and picked them up. Flavors I still haven’t tried: Dark Bacon Bar, Black Pearl, Creole, Gianduja, and Matcha.

Goji Bar

GojiThis bar was also recommended to me as a must-try. Promising, since I do like Goji berries (the one time I ate them), and usually simpler is best when it comes to chocolate. Unfortunately, this fell a little flat. Instead of complementing each other, the sweet goji and Himalayan salt just cancel each other out, leaving just the 41% milk chocolate, which is too sweet (website says 41%, package says 45%). When left to melt on the tongue, the goji does provide texture–not flavor– and the pockets of salt make this bar taste more nutty and less fruity. If this is a Goji bar, shouldn’t I taste the goji? I think this should be renamed to the Pink Himalayan Salt Bar. Maybe it will taste better if I pop it in the fridge before eating…

Calindia Bar

CalindiaOut of all of the bars I’ve tried so far, this was the one that had the most going on. It smells strongly of cardamom (similar to the Naga Bar in smell), but has much more flavor and texture. The bad thing about this bar is that it has so many physical elements in it (walnuts and dried plums) that I don’t think they are distributed evenly. The 65% chocolate straddles the fine line between sweet and bitter, but tastes are hit or miss. The first taste had large, leathery chunks of plum that refused to leave my mouth minutes after I was finished with the chocolate. The walnut is overpowered by the cardamom and plum in flavor, texture, and aroma. After some editing, this bar could be quite good, but for now it’s a tad too floral and tastes like chocolate-y potpourri.

Oaxaca Bar

Oaxacan Chile I thought this bar was going to be just like the Red Fire, but darker. Unfortunately, the chocolate itself turned me completely off. In fact, I think I might just refuse to take a second bite. The chocolate itself is only 75% cacao, and I’ve had 82% and been perfectly happy with it. Instead, I think it’s the type of cacao used (Tanzanian) and the flavors paired with it. I couldn’t get past the overwhelming dryness and chalkiness to taste the chiles, and unfortunately, this bitterness stayed in my mouth almost an hour after I tasted it. I also didn’t get the pleasant, mild burn from the chile like in the Red Fire.

Barcelona Bar

BarcelonaThis was the most disappointing bar that I’ve tried so far. There wasn’t anything really interesting (good or bad) about it. In fact, it tasted just like a Godiva Milk Chocolate Almond / Hershey Almond Bar. Well, not as bad as Hershey. I don’t really remember what that tastes like anymore, but still–this bar is plain. There is nothing “exotic” about it at all to my taste buds. This would be a great find for people that like a little more salt in their chocolate/nut combos, so give it to European friends or people that will nostalgically declare this reminds them of the chocolate they nibbled on in the Mediterranean x-amount of years ago.

Woolloomooloo Bar

My friend let me take a hunk out of her semi-melted Woolloomooloo Bar one evening. She had bought the Woolloomooloo with me when I had bought the first batch at Teaism in Penn Quarter. Since it was partially melted, I can’t fully judge it, but it was just alright. I don’t care for milk chocolate, so it was too sweet for me. I also didn’t get a sense of the depth of flavor that’s advertised on this bar. The salted macadamia nuts were plentiful and gave a nice crunch to the bar, but where was the coconut and hemp?