Trying to shed off post-holiday pounds can be a real feat. After a hefty serving of lechon and sauce-rich dishes over the holidays, it was quite odd that my husband, Mike and I would crave for honest-to-goodness American comfort food for a change. Although this may not exactly be the chill-out detox meal you’d expect, we often seek out what other people would lovingly call ‘junk food’ some of the time.

If you don’t mind driving a few miles north for a meal, the drive to Clark Pampanga can be satisfying when you reach a hole-in-the-wall deli cum specialty food shop called Bretto’s Café and Carvery. A lot of people may gladly say though that coming to Bretto’s is the complete contrary to South Beach diets and detox. Even then, driving North for a hearty breakfast and hefty serving of sausages may be considered an occasional sinful indulgence.

In fact, dining at Bretto’s vividly reminded us of our favorite haunt on Van Ness Avenue in downtown San Francisco called Tommy’s Joint. Tommy’s Joint is a classic landmark that serves traditional Italian-American comfort food but never in bite size servings. With its completely laid-back interiors, you can completely enjoy a filling meal even in the middle of the afternoon. If you can hack it too, they serve turkey legs and mashed potatoes that are spooned onto your plates in proportions that could fill half a crock pot. The fare though is never complete without a pint-sized glass of soda or beer. Come to think of it, one meal can actually fill you up till the next evening’s dinner. And so for the faint-hearted, Tommy’s is not the place to try out a new diet nor to start counting calories.