Julian and I walked up to the Main Street Block Party this evening. It was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the fire that destroyed two buildings on Main Street and would have decimated downtown if every fire department within a 15-mile radius hadn’t sent help. The biggest attraction was the beer garden put on by the Hop and Hound. We ran into our next door neighbors, then went in search of supper.
We ducked into a relatively new restaurant, Revolve, that bills itself as a “true food and wine bar.” The menu touts that its items are free of gluten, grains, GMO, legumes, soy, and refined sugars. The restaurant isn’t full Paleo, as dairy products are on the menu. The burgers and sandwiches are served on “paleo buns”, made from almond and coconut flours. Julian’s first comment was, “This is so Portlandia.” Luckily, the wait staff did not introduce us to the chickens that gave their lives for our meals. He ordered the jerk chicken, while I got the tikka masala chicken meatballs. His dish came with coleslaw and sweet potato fries; my meatballs were perched atop a cauliflower pilaf. Both of us had the draft ale, which was very good. Although it would be an ideal place for our gluten-free friends, I’m not sure the vibe is a good fit with Bothell.
This brings up another issue: The Paleo Diet. The premise of this way of eating is that humans were hunter-gatherers back in the day, and they should continue to eat in that fashion. Hello, have these folks ever heard of evolution? Hunting and gathering did not allow for many other activities other than finding one’s food. The rise of agrarian societies led to less food insecurity and development of civilizations such as in Egypt and Mesopotamia. There would be no Great Pyramids without a switch from hunter-gatherer to agriculture. Beer and wine were not available in Paleo societies, nor were deep-fried sweet potatoes. I think the diet was invented to justify eating large quantities of meat. The adherents are, for the most part, hunting and gathering from Safeway instead of the wild.
My response to the Paleo Diet? Oh, evolve already.
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