Yogurt: An Obsession Reborn

When we moved to Seattle three years and eleven months ago, I made a remarkable discovery: yogurt. Sure I've had plenty of Yoplait (including a Go-Gurt with my niece once) in my life. But the Northwest's own Nancy's Cultured Dairy and Soy brand, based in Eugene, Oregon, truly knocked my socks off. Over the years, we've bought countless ounces of the stuff (judging by the bounty of plastic Nancy's tubs in our cupboard). I have been known to use yogurt as the secret ingredient for banana bread, blueberry muffins, and macaroni and cheese, and as a general all-purpose sour cream substitute since. (That's right, yogurt is my all-purpose secret ingredient and general palliative cure. You heard it here first.) Like the moon, my yogurt fancies wax and wane periodically. But my obsession is always there to some degree. One day, ask me to describe the yogurt section to you at the friendly Montparnasse neighborhood Monoprix that I visited in February in Paris. (I warn you, that conversation may last hours.)

Just this past Friday, my yogurt addiction turned a new corner. While running a somewhat bizarre errand for work to the nearby University Village -- a trendy open-air shopping mall a short downhill jaunt from my office -- I saw the sign: "Red Mango Coming Soon." I was already high from seeing first-hand the H&M construction across the lot. This Red Mango business piqued my interest.

Joy of joys! This miraculous store spawned the fro-yo clone Pinkberry my Los Angeles-based friends have been raving about for months, causing me to experience unreal levels of jealousy. For the uninitiated, Red Mango is the original Korean frozen yogurt chain specializing in real frozen yogurt, with those exotic live and active cultures. Tangy, not too sweet, totally delicious sounding and possibly addiction-forming. After some reading up, I convinced my darling husband that we had some very important errands to run in Lynnwood, Washington, that very evening. After exhibiting remarkable self-control by visiting a few other shops first, we marched right past the monstrous P.F. Chang's to Red Mango so I could try this amazing substance for myself.

I ordered an amazing green tea frozen yogurt with blackberries and raspberries. Jake had green tea with blueberries. Amazing. Did I say that already? Totally addiction-forming. Needs a warning label.

This is the first time in many years I've considered myself unfortunate for not living in Suburbia, where the frozen yogurt trade is perhaps more robust than our neighbors' illicit herb business here in the city. (More on that later.)

Fortunately, my friend Katie is very knowledgeable about the urban frozen yogurt scene, and she tipped us off to Crazy Cherry, just a few blocks from our apartment. This afternoon -- a mere 44 hours after our Red Mango journey for those of you following along at home -- Jake and I convinced ourselves that a comparative taste test was of imminent importance. They were out of green tea flavor, the cranky yogurtista informed us. We settled for plain, with blueberries for the gentleman and blackberries for the lady.

We both agreed -- not as good as Red Mango -- and way too cold. This is a mixed blessing. It's really hard to convince ourselves we really need to run errands in Lynnwood more than every couple of months. But when that new University Village store opens just minutes from my office, how will I stave off my cravings for frozen, yet live and active cultures? I'm afraid, very afraid, that my yogurt habit has taken a turn for the worse.