Paleolithic cuisine seems to be a growing trend at present in the USA and in Europe. On its face, it seems fairly stupid, and destined for a short life-span. The premise is that they serve only food that would have been readily available to hunter gatherers around two million years ago (this might be a problem for some of the hyper-religious as well, as they believe that Earth is only around 6,000 years old).
Among the newest to pop up: Berlin's Sauvage restaurant - no cheese, bread or sugar to be found, there. The menu includes salads with olives, capers and pine nuts; gluten-free bread with nut-based butter or olive tapenades; smoked salmon with herb dressing; and other various meat and fish dishes.
They don't seem to have much actual understanding of the life beyond about 2,000 years ago, but the place will be popular until it isn't. Greeks and Romans found ways to harvest olives; paleolithics surely did not. They also didn't know about breads; mostly, they were scavengers, gatherers, and - if necessary - hunters. Hunting was a dangerous business, and generally a last resort. It's also doubtful that the cuts of meat looked anything like the photo.
This would be oh-so-trendy in downtown Stumptown, though the food inspectors might be a touch testy.
Posted by: Sam L. | October 31, 2011 at 08:51 AM
This is probably one of those neat trends that will have its 15 minutes of fame.
If they really wanted to do the "cave-man" thing, they'd have you go out into the back 40 - with the other guys that night - and bring down a mastodon or something (while their wives root for yams and such).
I have a hunch that the dinner bill is not cheap.
[Idea for science-fiction story: the owner and chef have a time machine, which they use to bring back the actual goods.
But one day, one of them steps on a butterfly.]
Posted by: ZZMike | October 31, 2011 at 12:18 PM
You can bet this would take off in Portland in a few heartbeats, but as ZZ notes, it's gonna be one of those flash-in-the-pan things. As well, I'm not too impressed with the presentation - though the paleolithic era isn't really my thing, I suspect that cooking wasn't especially well established. I'm fairly sure they didn't do salmon with herb sauce. To be authentic, they should just dump a bunch of stuff on the floor and have guests dive in with only hands and teeth.
Posted by: Max | October 31, 2011 at 05:48 PM
I dunno. I'd wager processed wheat, rice and soy aren't necessarily good for you. And this 'diet' isn't something new; eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and lean meats exclusively for health benefits has been around for a while.
However, I like pasta, bread and beer too much to walk away from wheat.
Posted by: Chris McMullen | October 31, 2011 at 09:48 PM
Well, if you want fruits and nuts, then certainly your best choice is to shop at Portland City Council. For vegetables, shop at Metro or Multnomah County.
As I noted, salmon with herb sauce probably wasn't on the paleolithic menu.
Posted by: Max | October 31, 2011 at 11:09 PM