What I Ate: April 16, 2009 (In-N-Out, Red Mango, Pinkberry)

Our last meal in the Bay Area went to In-N-Out Burger. I was planning on hitting the one in Gilroy on the way down, but it took us a while to get going (lots of stuff to wrap up), so at around 2pm we went to the Sunnyvale In-N-Out (604 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA‎ - (800) 786-1000‎). I had a Double Double with onions, Tina had a Cheeseburger with onions, and we shared an order of fries.

Dinner was at my parent's place where my mom and dad prepared a delicious dinner of pork and daikon soup, kombu seaweed seasoned with garlic and oyster sauce, shrimp and jielan (Chinese broccoli), steamed broccoli, and spicy teriyaki beef with vegetables.

After last night's Pinkberry experience, we thought we'd do a head to head taste test between Red Mango (which started in Korea a few years before Pinkberry but came to the United States a couple years after Pinkberry started in Los Angeles) and Pinkberry. We went to the Northridge Red Mango (18514 Devonshire Street, Northridge, CA‎ - (818) 717-9248‎‎) which is closest to where we were spending the night (my parent's place) and ordered exactly what we had last night - Original with Strawberries and Mochi - as well as a pomegranite frozen yogurt for my parents to share.

We then rushed over to the closest Pinkberry (8850 Tampa Ave, Northridge, CA‎ - (818) 885-0013‎) before our yogurt melted to taste them side by side. We got a green tea yogurt to taste. (In case you're wondering, I thought the green tea was good and liked the tanginess that followed the initial green tea flavor. Tina didn't like the yogurt flavor blended with green tea and said she would rather have green tea ice cream.)

Our conclusion was that the Red Mango yogurt tasted off - we certainly would not make the same comparison to Straus Family Creamery's Yogurts like I did last night with Pinkberry. There was also a strange fine grain texture to the yogurt that tasted like binder or milk protein powder. In contrast, the Pinkberry original flavor yogurt tasted fresh and bright (the acidity was a little sharper but in a refreshing way). It's texture was also creamy without leaving any discernible graininess like the Red Mango did. Like my mom said, she'd eat the Pinkberry original flavor without toppings, but she wouldn't eat the Red Mango original flavor that way. Also, I should mention that the toppings on display looked a lot fresher at Pinkberry than at Red Mango. The mochi we had was softer at Pinkberry and the strawberries were firmer (my mom noticed the Red Mango strawberries were sitting in a puddle of juice while the Pinkberry ones looked fresh).

The pricing is similar - Red Mango is $2.50 for a small and $1.25 extra for the two toppings. Pinkberry is $2.50 for a small; $3.95 for a small with 2 toppings. At both places, the flavored yogurts (green tea and pomegranate) are $1.00 more for small. The small cup sizes are the same if you get it without toppings, but at Pinkberry they use a larger cup if you get toppings which means you get more toppings.

I think at this point it's easy to guess which frozen yogurt vendor I'd be giving my custom (if I wasn't going to be living in Austin where Pinkberry doesn't exist yet).