Tutti Frutti UK

It's a real blessing to find an eating place in Soho where you can sit down for as long as you like without feeling like you should get up and leave so that you can make room for the people in the queue and escape the accusing stares of the staff.

Tutti Frutti has an entire funky basement filled with sofas, chairs, tables, books and board games which is a huge appeal for people who have time to kill whilst in the Soho area, or those who fancy a lengthy sit-down with friends over yummy dessert which won't make you feel too guilty.

There are about ten dispensers of different-flavoured frozen yogurt lining a wall in the shop, and these flavours vary day-to-day. Some which I have seen are Red Velvet, Blueberry, Kiwi, Soy, Nutella, Peanut Butter, Watermelon, Chocolate, and many more. Peanut Butter has got to be my favourite so far. They've got the full list on their website, but not all of these flavours are always available in shops.

The prices go by the final weight of your cup, at £1.85 per 100g. There are two cups to choose from, and the smaller one has an average price of £3.50 while you could expect to pay an approximate £5.50 for filling your froyo in the bigger one. Students get a discount of 10%, or 15% if your bill is over £10. (That would have to be a big cup of froyo, and no, getting two cups in the same bill wouldn't be very smart if you're a student.)

You can mix and match flavours, and I tend to sway towards those which aren't related to fruit, because the toppings which I choose afterwards are cookies and chocolate – you've got chocolate chips, mini oreos, chocolate chip cookies, buttery shortbread biscuits, Cadbury Flake, coconut shavings, ground peanuts, gummies, and all sorts of other stuff, it's hard to be short of options. Not too far away, they also have a healthier selection of toppings which includes grapes, pineapples, kiwis, and cubes of different fruits in general. I've been apprehensive to try, say, Nutella froyo with a topping of kiwi cubes, but I'll try to be adventurous in my next visit.

There's an app on the app store called Kooki which has a few loyalty cards from various eating places in London, and Tutti Frutti has got a card on there, which enables you a 6th cup of free froyo.

The shop also sells bubble tea, brownies and Malaysian pancakes. It really is a gem in the middle of Soho and I do recommend it, as there is something for everyone!

I just wish that they had awesome topping variations which can be used to make epic froyo architecture like this one which my friend did in Tutti Frutti Canada:

Tutti Frutti
2 Bedford Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 9HH
United Kingdom
info@tfuk-froyo.co.uk
www.tfuk-froyo.co.uk/

Magnum no. 5 Stolen Kiss: Tarte Aux Pommes

Spring is here, and anyone who has been faced with six months of gloom, rain, sleet and howling wind will find any possible opportunity to have an ice cream.

Or maybe it's just me.

The 9th of April was a good day all around the UK.

I enjoyed the scoop of 'Vermonster' flavoured ice cream from the Ben & Jerry's at Leicester Square's Odeon, which is a maple syrup ice cream with pecans and a caramel swirl. Such lovely flavours in that ice cream... there really is nothing else to say about Ben & Jerrys' ice cream, other than 'yum.'

This caught my eye in Tesco Express because a) it was in a fancy green box b) it is packaged and named like a fragrance and c) tarte aux pommes means apple tart, ooh yeah.

A little bit coffin-like in presentation, but I was delighted to see that the chocolate coating was white.

The only other time I've had apple pie-flavoured ice cream was when I had a mini cup of Ben & Jerry's Oh My! Apple Pie, a vanilla ice cream containing chunks of apple and pie crust. It fared well, but Magnum one-upped that by coating a similar mixture with cinnamon-infused white chocolate, which really enhances and completes the taste of an apple pie/tarte.

If I had an endless stomach pit + insane metabolism + immunity to fat + all other physical traits I can't have, I would have this ice cream everyday!

McFlurry

Because I don't bring my digital camera everywhere I go, I have to improvise with Instagram, the infamous iPhone hobby which takes up more of my time than I should probably allow.

McFlurry® flavours vary all around the world and this is one informative revelation you get when moving to another country. In Singapore, you have the basic Oreo McFlurry ($2) and the occasional promotional flavour, such as crème brulée or chocolate macaron.

McDonald's in the UK provides a variety of Dairy Milk Chocolate, Cadbury® Crunchie, or Smarties crushed into the usual vanilla soft-serve ice cream, and there are also promotional flavours, and the current one is the Cadbury Creme Egg, which makes up a lot of every year's Easter craze.

This flavour is only available up till the 30th of April. Although I don't fancy the actual Creme Egg chocolates that much, I give a yes to this one – the fondant-y, sweet Creme Egg flavour is brought out nicely and complimented by the ice cream, which helps to dilute it, in a sense, helping it to spread its richness around. (I can not find the prices of any of McDonald's foods online – or sometimes even in its branches, for that matter. It annoys me. The Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry costs somewhere between £1 and £1.50. Yes, I will keep records next time.)

The only annoying thing was that the McFlurry ice cream from the McDonald's near the Jubilee Line entrance at London Waterloo station was melting like there was no tomorrow! It was a cold day (this is London, mind you) and even an average McFlurry ice cream in Singapore (tropical over-sunny island) would take quite a while to melt.

However, the McDonald's in Hammersmith Broadway Shopping Centre was fine, where I bought one with Cadbury Crunchie bits in it. (Cheaper than the promotional McFlurry. 99p, maybe?) Cadbury Crunchie is a chocolate bar with a honeycomb and toffee centre. Although the flavours were really nice, I do wish they were more Crunchie bits in it. I saw stickers on the topping dispensers which stated the amount of times the staff member was supposed to slide the lever, and it was only '1' for all of them – whyyyy!