Over the summer I took my boys into New York City a few times. It was the first summer since going paleo so our jaunts included efforts to find paleo eats wherever we went. We were fairly successful. You can find most anything in New York so it stands to reason one could find plenty of paleo-friendly food. Afterall, paleo means eating meat, vegetables, some fruit and nuts and good fats – not really that hard. Of course, New York has its share of food temptations. We had to avoid the street vendors with dessert crĂȘpes and falafel. We did not indulge in black & white cookies and cannoli. And we stayed away from Italian restaurants – with one exception, Mario Batali’s La Lupa. That was tough because, let me tell you, there are REALLY good Italian restaurants in New York City. Sigh.

Lululemon Athletica

I lugged my camera every time we went in and managed to get some fun shots. You can see a few of them in a previous post about our trip to Madison Square Park – Paleo and the City: Madison Square Park. That particular trip was during a week when my oldest son, Big Boy, was away at church camp and Sweet Pea and I were on our own. We took a second trip into “The City” that same week which included a stop at Lululemon Athletica (quite the yoga-wear Mecca). My husband G has gotten into yoga over the last year. He enjoys practicing when he has the time and appreciates the multiple benefits. Lululemon has a fantastic men’s line of yoga clothing. But even though G is quite comfortable in his manhood he simply cannot abide the name. He can’t bring himself to buy clothes from a store with “lulu” in the name. Maybe if they changed it to “Stevestevelemon” or “BobBoblemon” or simply “Lulemon”?? Next time I shop there I may buy him something but disguise it to look like it came from a more manly sounding athletic store. In spite of the unusual name, Lululemon sells terrific products. Everything I have purchased there has been great quality and has worn and washed well. The yoga top you see in the photo below came from Lululemon. Come to think of it, so did the hat.20111027-044307.jpg

On my trip to the store in New York City I also purchased a sports bra (Shape Me Bra) and a running skirt. The running skirt (Speed Skirt) is awesome. I have gotten more compliments on it from people both in and out of the gym than any other workout gear/wear with the exception of my Vibram Fivefingers. The “Tall” version of the Speed Skirt is a bit longer than the regular version which makes it more versatile to wear away from the gym or the trail.

Speed Skirt in Mystic, CT

Two cuties and me - wearing Lululemon Speed Skirt & Vibram Fivefingers Sprints.

Sweet Pea lived up to his nickname by dutifully accompanying me to Lululemon and patiently waiting while I tried on workout gear. The staff at the store on 3rd Avenue at 66th were wonderful. They were not only helpful in terms of leading me to the right types of athletic-wear but they were extremely nice to my little SP. He was very content to hang out in a little lounge area and read a book about an elephant who does yoga. That reminds me, I need to get a copy of that book soon because he still talks about it.

I tried taking a photo of the Lululemon store to commemorate my visit but SP was being a rascal and kept jumping in front of the shot. This version is better anyway. 🙂
lululemon then on to the zoo
We grabbed lunch at a Chinese place on 2nd avenue. Here’s SP eating his duck soup. The noodles were unavoidable but I think SP’s interest in such things are waning because he was focused like a laser on eating the meat and the broth. In general, Chinese places are good bets when eating out and trying to stick with a paleo diet. The roast duck with a side of spicy garlic and chile bok choy was amazingly good. I certainly did not feel like I was missing out on anything by not having rice or noodles.

SP eats duck soup

Central Park and the Zoo

The Central Park Zoo was our next stop. We didn’t even try to find paleo food at the zoo snack bar. Instead we shared a Larabar. Find my recipe for a homemade version here. (I always feel very vegan-y when I eat Larabars. But it’s only for a couple of minutes and then I’m dreaming of eating meat again.) SP was hoping to find “Mort” from “The Penguins of Madagascar” so he insisted on having his photo taken with one of the lemurs.SP and lemur 2

The Children’s Zoo was a great place to feed some animals. My son was especially tickled to successfully feed a couple of goats by hand. It was definitely not the appropriate moment to mention that goat meat is fast becoming one of the more popular meats in the paleosphere. Check out Nom Nom Paleo’s recipe: here.feeding goats

After the zoo, we took a brief stroll through Central Park on our way to meet G for dinner. SP had a snack. Okay, you’ve caught us red-handed – literally. This is definitely not paleo. But when you are a six-year-old boy and in Central Park on a summer day you must have a Spiderman popsicle after going to the zoo – it’s a rule somewhere.

Even the Orton filter on the picture can

The grand finale of the day was our dinner at Momofuku’s magnificent restaurant MĂĄ PĂȘche. In my next post I’ll give a few details of this unique restaurant and our experience attempting to eat paleo with a 6-year-old at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. Stay tuned!

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