What I did on my non-Summer vacation...

Just in case anyone thought I was a super-chaste-paleo-eating-kitchen-wizard, here is a selection of food that I ate on my amazing vacation to Washington DC, Philadelphia, and NYC.  A photo essay:

Dinner at WD~50 (R-L, T-B): Everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, crispy cream cheese; Foie gras, passionfruit, chinese celery; Poached egg in the shell, pumpernickel, caesar dressing, lily bulb; King oyster ‘udon,’ sweetbreads, banana-molassas, pickled ginger; Tai snapper, onion tart, coffee, asian pear; 'Beef & bernaise'; Lamb loin, ‘red beans & rice,’ chayote squash; Grapefruit curd, campari, hibiscus, sorrel; and Soft chocolate, beet, long pepper, ricotta ice cream

Monte Cristo (that'd be deep fried ham, turkey, and cheese) sandwich and eggs - Prune (NYC)

The best g-d burger I've ever had - Spotted Pig (NYC)

No, no, that isn't black coffee... that's pure melted chocolate - Belle Marie (NYC)

Beet gelato - Il Laboratorio del Gelato (NYC)

Definitely my favorite piece at MoMA (if you can't decipher the German, it says, "healthy and good with butter") PS - I did not eat this, I would have been arrested swiftly

Shake shack  (NYC)

Grey's Papaya recession special (NYC)

Pastrami on rye - Carnegie Deli (NYC)

 

 

Liege-style waffles (Philadelphia)

Cheese steak, wit wiz (Philadelphia)

Killer crab cake sandwiches - Robert Morris Inn (Maryland) (yep, that's me, with the two thumbs)

Iberico ham - Jaleo (WA-DC)

Derek Zoolander (kidding)

A fanged deer (also kidding)

There you have it... that's mostly what I was doing during March and April.  The lesson of this story is that honestly, while I did have a few negative effects, namely a raving desire for some home-cooked grub, a few overindulgence-type tummy aches, and a bit of jiggly bloat as a temporary souvenir, I didn't feel like this gorge fest knocked me off of any type of "wagon" or whatever... I was happy to get back to the gym and back to eating better.  I am lucky that I don't seem to have crazy negative reactions to gluten/dairy/whatnot.  That seems to be, for me, the joy of eating and cooking - I can eat all kinds of junk, for a while, and it can make me happy, for a while, but I know that the best food, in the long-term, comes from my own efforts... and the jiggle only takes about a week to subside :)