Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream

One of my five food rules: Only cheat when it's absolutely worth it.

I rarely deviate from strict Paleo eating. (Example: In the past several months, I've eaten only one sugary dessert. And THAT one was totally worth it.) It hasn't been all that hard for me to pass up grains, legumes and sugar; I've never been a huge fan of any of the above. I don't have a sweet tooth.

BUT: If -- after careful consideration -- I'm absolutely certain that the pleasure of downing a non-Paleo food item is going to totally eclipse any resulting intestinal distress, I'll have zero qualms about eating it. And once the decision's made, I don't go about it half-assed. I go all out.

Case in point: I drove by Humphry Slocombe today (after picking up rabbit from 4505 Meats -- yes, we're cooking and eating Easter bunny flesh this weekend) -- and as luck would have it, there was a parking space right up front. Visions of Chris Cosentino's Boccalone Prosciutto ice cream danced in my head. I parked the car and hustled inside.



Sadly, there was no prosciutto ice cream on the menu today. But my mind was made up: I wanted to taste every flavor on hand. I tried spoonfuls of Salt & Pepper, Jesus Juice, Ancho Chocolate, Salted Licorice, and whatever else looked sufficiently weird and tasty.

After priming my palate with a sufficiently large bolus of sugar, I ordered a scoop of Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee ice cream (because I love me some Blue Bottle coffee), with a scoop of Secret Breakfast ice cream on top. Secret Breakfast is, of course, "ice cream with bourbon and toasted cornflakes, including so much Jim Beam that the scoops always run soft."

My very first cup of ice cream in 2011, in all its glory:

Booze. Coffee. Cornflakes. Dairy. Sugar. Total faileo, and my gut is going to hate me for it.

But it was delicious.

Fatal Race

It feels weird to be posting about this tragedy right after writing about the so-called "Death Race." But this is bugging me.

Near the finish line of yesterday's Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half-Marathon, one of the runners collapsed and died. Peter Hass, a Bay Area resident and president of a pet toy company, was just 36 years old, and appeared to be trim and healthy.

You'd think that a race sponsored by one of California's largest health care providers would have medics at the finish line, ready to respond to such a serious medical emergency, but then you'd be wrong:

Witnesses say that Hass didn't have a "fighting chance," since medical staff and paramedics didn't arrive for another 20 minutes. 

After Hass fell to the ground, race volunteers pleaded for help. An announcer made repeated calls for medical assistance, yet only runners standing around came to Hass' aid and performed CPR, according to media reports.

I understand that Kaiser Permanente didn't organize or manage the race -- a company called RhodyCo Productions did. But given the not-insignificant numbers of runners who suffer cardiac events and other injuries, you'd think that an enormous healthcare consortium like Kaiser Permanente would have (and could have) done more to ensure adequate medical care at this event.

Long distance running can be rewarding to some, but as I wrote last October, too many people blindly assume that it's low-risk, too, when in fact:

[M]arathoners – beginning with the very first one – keep dying mid-run. And not just the couch potatoes who push themselves too hard -- we're talking about ostensibly “healthy” runners (like this guy and this guy). Yes, only about 1 out of every 50,000 marathoners die of heart attacks during races, but almost half a million people finished marathons last year, so statistically, we're seeing roughly ten or more fatal mid-race heart attacks per year. And how many more die during training? (Incidentally, how come CrossFit -- which hasn't yet experienced a single reported fatality -- is invariably described as "controversial" and "dangerous," but long-distance running is viewed by most people as normal and healthy?) 

Did Kaiser Permanente and/or RhodyCo fail to take the proper precautions because of simple negligence, or were they lulled by "experts" and shoe companies -- into the (incorrect) assumption that endurance events are "heart-healthy"?

Check It Out: Offal Good

Chris Cosentino doesn't post very often (probably because he's busy running San Francisco's Incanto and Boccalone), but I enjoy his blog, Offal Good, which is devoted to organ meats and other animal parts that make most Americans squeamish. It's a shrine to head-to-tail eating -- the most sustainable (and Paleo-friendly) way to eat meat.

Bonus: Offal Good sells the best T-shirt ever:

Paleo Eats @ San Francisco's Ferry Building

The Ferry Building Marketplace on the San Francisco waterfront is one of the city's premiere gourmet destinations, crammed with restaurants and shops catering to food tourists, business lunchers, urban hipsters and culinary aesthetes. It's like New York's Chelsea Market, but on steroids. And on Tuesdays, Thursdays and especially Saturdays, the place explodes with even more activity, when the Ferry Building hosts a bustling farmer's market.

Pre-Paleo, I'd frequently head over to the Ferry Building for a lunchtime meal of burger and fries at Taylor's (now Gott's), a meatball bánh mì at Out the Door, a porchetta sandwich at Roli Roti, or a big ass bowl of white rice topped with Kobe beef, ginger, and shredded egg at Delica.

But these days, finding Paleo-friendly options at the Ferry Building takes a bit of extra work. Thankfully, with such an overabundance of tasty grub in one spot, there's plenty for a modern caveman/woman to enjoy.

Some examples:

Farmhouse Burger @ Prather Ranch Grill -- a burger topped with ham and a fried egg. (I get it with extra greens and without the bun.)

Buffalo Burger @ Prather Ranch Grill -- hold the bun. (Diane Sanfilippo at Balanced Bites favors the bunless Slaw Burger, but I haven't tried it yet.)

Jerky @ The Golden Gate Meat Company -- no sugar! (Except the sweet & spicy variety.)

Spicy Italian Sausage-on-a-Stick @ The Golden Gate Meat Company -- Two bucks. Get it with mustard. I couldn't even wait to take a picture before wolfing down half the damned thing.

Mixed Salumi Cone @ Boccalone -- it's meat in a cone. Enough said.

Pork Stew & Greens @ Il Cane Rosso -- This was supposed to be served over a big creamy bowl of polenta, but I wasn't going there. But Il Cane Rosso graciously offered to serve the stew alongside a simple salad. It totally hit the spot.

Cobb Salad @ Gott's -- I love Cobb salads, and Gott's version has gotten better over the years. And before you scream at me about the cheese, kindly step off. I'm lacto-Paleo.

Seasonal Vegetable Salad @ Cowgirl Creamery Sidekick -- way too expensive for a tiny little salad, but delicious nonetheless.

The next time you're in town and decide to head over to the Ferry Building, don't get put off by the all the high-end chocolatiers, gelaterias and bread-bakers. You can stay Paleo and still have some awesome food.

Dreya Works While You Eat

Are you a P90X obsessive? Are you stalking a fan of Dreya Weber? Can you endure an evening of dinner theater? If you answered "yes" to all three, then head over to Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco. Dreya's appearing as Cleopatra in "Hail Caesar!" through October 31. (Her cast bio can be found here.)

While you're there, maybe you can catch her eye by showing off your supreme mastery of the Dreya Forearm Stretch.

(Source: FitSugar)

Run This Town

San Francisco was recently ranked by Runner's World as the second-best American city for running, and I can see why.

I took a mid-day break from work today to squeeze in a run. My office is within spitting distance of the San Francisco Marathon route, so I checked out the course map online and decided to follow it for awhile. I ran from downtown up past Fisherman's Wharf, the Cannery, Ghirardelli Square, and Aquatic Park, and then up above Fort Mason, down the Marina green, through Crissy Field and to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. And then I ran back to my office. It was 10 miles in all, and over the course of 80 minutes, I got to soak in beautiful views of the city that I never bothered to check out when I lived in San Francisco.

Two (of the many) reasons I love my job: I work in a jaw-droppingly beautiful city, and my job allows me the flexibility to take an hour-and-a-half off in the middle of the workday to run around this town.