Since sugar and sweets are more my downfall than salty/fatty, I figured I'd head in the direction of dessert. If I had been home, I would have had scores of delicious and *high quality* treats to choose from. My best friend is an excellent baker so I'd probably just eat handfuls of her cake scraps. Or maybe some good quality dark chocolate. Point is, I'd at least be able to pronounce most of the ingredients. Yes, I admit, I am a food snob.
But there I was in Estes Park, CO - a touristy little town at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. A place where one would go for outdoor adventure, not a place known for it's cuisine. The downtown strip is punctuated by ice cream/sweet shops - the kind of places that sell cotton candy, caramel corn, trays of fudge in 17 different flavors, and these bad boys:
As I mentioned before, our family has a yearly tradition of going into town for ice cream at least once during our vacation together. We are still trying to figure out which of these shops has better ice cream. Each year, we're left somewhat disappointed by the quality or the taste - the adults, that is - the kids, not so much!Still, ice cream is ice cream - can't be so bad, right? We ended up at a busy shop, trying to wrangle the kids and their orders without anyone dropping his cone on the floor...so I barely had time to think about what flavor I wanted. Got Mocha Almond Fudge in a sugar cone:
It was ok - tasted good, nice mocha flavor with some chocolate and almonds swirled in. The texture, though, kinda grossed me out. Instead of being thick and creamy, it was grainy and icy. The cone was the best part. Nope, scratch that - the company was the best part:
That's me and my brother Tim and the four cousins: Ben, Milo, Stella and Sam. The kids were pretty psyched with their Bubblegum and Cotton Candy cones, as you can see.As far as the effects of the ice cream, I gotta say it wasn't too dramatic. I just got a slight bellyache for a coupla hours - it was gone before I went to bed. No noticeable shift in energy level, up or down. Overall, I felt like I could have skipped this indulgence...I wasn't really craving anything in particular, especially given the choices I had in front of me. I would have been just as fine not eating the ice cream - better off, for sure, from a physical standpoint. But even mentally, it was kinda like, eh, I could take it or leave it. I took it because it was required, not because I was super psyched to be allowed to go off-diet. I do think the excitement level would have been a little higher if I were able to eat some of the treats I prefer. Grace, I think a couple of your Peanut Butter Bombs would have done the trick quite nicely!
Anyhoo, I think we'll get more of a meal-sized indulgence next time? Now that is something I can get behind!
Icy ice cream is the worst. It seems like all of our indulgences were let downs. Maybe that's the point, but I do think a more meal sized indulgence might be more fulfiling.
ReplyDeleteThe family is too cute.
Something I learned is that if you're going to deliberately indulge, it's way better if you get *exactly* what you have in mind. That's no guarantee that you're going to love it as much as you think you will, of course, and yeah, that's kind of the point. But if you don't get precisely what you want, it's pretty much never going to be worth it. (As opposed to maybe, possibly, being kind of worth it.)
ReplyDeleteLooks like you all had a fun time!
you totally had me fooled! thought the indulgence was that big ole whirly pop. i miss the youthful days of eating candy the size of your head.
ReplyDeletebad textured ice cream sucks. if you want PBB's for the next indulgence, i can totally send you some. they're sooo good.