Like every good Catholic, I decided to give up something important to me during this Lenten season. Already vegetarian, I considered giving up meat for the 46 days in between Ash Wednesday and Easter to be cheating the system (despite that being what I did last year).
About a week into Lent, after eating an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies solo, in three days flat, I decided to attempt to break my sweet addiction to anything coated in sugar. The first week went really well; despite the headaches and constant hunger, I hardly noticed I wasn’t eating so many desserts.
Then day eight came, and I broke down. I didn’t just slip a little; I didn’t just eat one piece of Dove dark chocolate from the bag that constantly stares at me from my desk as I do homework, or eat a fun size piece of candy from my roommates’ bowl that screams at me every time I pass the kitchen table.
Nope, I went to my favorite new dessert eatery, Tutti Frutti, and bought a whopping $5 worth of frozen yogurt. At 42 cents per ounce, I certainly got more dessert than I could handle. Being stressed was my excuse, as if that would absolve me from not fulfilling my Lenten promises. In any case, the frozen yogurt put me in a much better mood, and I was more productive afterward!
In the numerous times that I have eaten at Tutti Frutti, it has been completely filled with high school and college students, couples and families with children. The atmosphere is such that it offers kids a fun way to eat a treat, and older students and couples a chance to act like kids again and take a break from their daily lives. The place is filled with modern furniture; bright, funky colors; and smiling workers.
How it works: Tutti Frutti usually makes about 12 flavors of frozen yogurt, with original tart, vanilla and death by chocolate being regulars. They rotate the remaining flavors with those such as cookies and cream, chocolate coffee, mango, peanut butter and grape (which you can mix with peanut butter to make PB&J).
Each flavor is dispense-your-own, and before you do this, you can test as many as you want with the sample cups they give you. I usually end up “testing” all of them, some, such as death by chocolate, more than once. Once you’ve chosen a flavor (or two or three), you choose one of the bowl sizes and dispense as much frozen yogurt into it as you think you can eat. I’ve seen small children take large size bowls (which are typically bigger than their heads by volume) and eat the entire thing.
Next, you have to choose toppings, which gets difficult for a person like me who couldn’t make a decision if someone held ten pounds of chocolate under my nose and asked if I wanted it. Toppings often include a variety of fresh fruits, chocolate candies, sprinkles and dessert sauces. Some of the more exotic toppings include frosted animal crackers, various cereals and flavored mochi, which is a Japanese rice cake. I personally tend to pick the ingredients with the most chocolate and pile them higher than my bowl.
Once the toppings have been put on, the bowl goes onto a scale and is priced by weight. The final step: enjoy!
For college students especially, this frozen yogurt is especially fairly priced and it’s a wonderful reward when needing motivation to finish homework. Overall, this is a great place to chat with friends and to get off campus for a while.
For more information, visit the Tutti Frutti website here or Tutti Frutti Fargo’s Facebook page here.
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