As luck would have it, we didn’t have any plans this morning, so we decided to spend a lazy day hanging with our kiddies and good friends in San Francisco. Before setting off for the big city, I picked up my vegetable CSA box for the week…
…and ate some leftover roasted chicken and caramelized shallots and veggies from the other night’s chicken-in-the-pot for breakfast. See? I can eat something besides a frittata for breakfast. I can be wild and crazy like that.
Our first stop in the city was at Roam Artisan Burgers for a meaty lunch. I’ve wanted to come here since reading the positive review on A Hamburger Today and Diane Sanfilippo’s recommendation. Plus, the hubby ate here last weekend before his Crossfit Endurance seminar and he’s been going on and on about his burger, so I couldn’t wait to try one myself.
Fitbomb ordered a Classic Burger with double meat, no bun, extra avocado and a fried egg.
I ordered a Farmers’ Market Salad with TWO mini burger trios.
I didn’t know the salad would be sprinkled with cheese but I was too hungry to send it back – I just ate around the dairy. I liked my salad but as Fitbomb reminded me, when you’re at a burger joint, you should order a burger. I was still hungry after I ate my salad and six mini burgers (yes, really) so I ordered a Classic bison burger with no bun to share with the husband.
Really tasty and juicy. I can’t wait to return to Roam – and I’ll definitely get a double meat burger next time.
After lunch, we spent a couple hours catching some rays and playing at Julius Kahn Park in the Presidio. This park is my favorite in San Francisco. Too bad it’s overrun by snobby Marina mommies.
Later, we drove down to the Ferry Building and wandered around the various artisanal food purveyors. It was the first time I’d been here since going Paleo and I was now looking at the vendors with a different eye. When I used to live here, I’d make a beeline to Recchiutti Confections to grab a few squares of chocolate or to Acme Bakery for some fresh baked bread, but now I was checking out the meaty goodness at Prather Ranch and trying to figure out what Paleo options I could order at all my favorite restaurants. Who knew my food habits could change so significantly?
For dinner, we wandered over to Mexico DF to order some of our old Paleo-friendly stand-bys. We ordered guacamole classico with shrimp and bacon (I didn’t eat the bacon or chips), a trio of ceviche and crudos…
…and a pound of carnitas.
(I enjoyed the carnitas so much that when I got home, I pre-seasoned a pork butt and stuck it in the fridge – can’t wait to roast it off later this week!)
While on the Whole30, I haven’t really gone out to eat. At restaurants, it can be difficult to figure out which menu items (if any) are Whole30-compliant. But I love eating out, and today was a welcome respite from the kitchen, even though I had less control over what went into my food.
At first, it bothered me that cheese was sprinkled on my Roam salad and that the pickle slices on my bison burger may have been cured in a brine that contained sugar – but then I realized that I was going a little nuts over this 30-day reset. I’m committed to eating Paleo, but I don’t want to stress out about staying so hyper-vigilant about the Whole30 protocol that I end up shooting my cortisol levels through the roof over some infinitesimally tiny amount of non-strictly-Paleo food that makes its way into my mouth. I mean, it’s not like I broke down and downed a ginormous slice of pizza with an ice cream chaser.
I’m gonna finish the Whole30, but: (1) I’m not going to be a hermit and avoid dining out with family and friends just to avoid accidentally ingesting a trace amount of non-Whole30 ingredients in my restaurant meals, and (2) once these 30 days are up, this super-strict Paleo gig ain’t gonna last a minute longer.
