What I Ate in San Francisco

Hey there!

It’s been months since I last participated in a WIAW post but thought I would do one in honor of all of the yummy food I ate during my trip to San Francisco last week.

Before I get into the food porn good stuff, I want to share a few thoughts about vacations and diets. As you know, I’m all about indulging from time to time but what happens when you visit a city known for its amazing food and you’re there for 7 days straight? Should you try to eat mostly healthy and only indulge in moderation (as per usual) or just say eff it and eat whatever you want?

My original plan was to do the moderation thing but I ended up ditching that approach shortly into our trip. I think I ate pastries for breakfast every single day, had dessert, bread and wine with every dinner and ate at restaurants for every single meal. I didn’t do any formal exercise other than a yoga class, a bike ride through Golden Gate Park and a rock climbing session but those were more for fun than exercise.

So basically, I pigged out and didn’t exercise much for a week. Want to know what happened?

Nothing.

I really thought I would gain weight as this was the longest I’d gone without exercising or eating healthy but after a few days (I blame water retention for a slight uptick), I’m the same weight as I was before I left. I think it’s because of all the walking we did while we were there. I’m usually sitting at a desk all day so even though I didn’t do any formal workouts, I was probably more active overall last week than I am usually. I guess all the activity outweighed all of the refined carbs and alcohol. Woo hoo!

So the moral of the story – if you’re visiting an awesome city, please don’t ruin your trip by worrying about calories and exercise. Enjoy all that the city has to offer, including its cuisine and especially its junk food, and get back to your routine when you get home.

Rant over. Here are some of the things I ate in San Fran.

Tea leaf salad and lamb curry at Burma Superstar

Burrata salad, cheese and cured meats at Uva Enoteca

Clam chowder and a deep fried crab sandwich at Boudin (this was a shared meal… I wasn’t that gluttonous!)

Spring rolls and grilled lemongrass pork shoulder at The Slanted Door

Dahi vada (a lentil dumpling topped with yogurt, tamarind and mint) and dosa masala (a lentil crepe filled with potatoes) at Dosa

Almond croissant, bread pudding and a morning bun from Tartine (breakfast of champions).

Salted caramel and roasted coconut ice cream from Bi Rite.

Sushi at Ebisu.

And these are only some of the highlights (we also went to Napa for a day so I’ll have to devote a separate post entirely to that).

Hope you’re not drooling too hard!

Happy WIAW and thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas & Crayons for hosting.