About

Hello, my name is Tomoko. My husband, David, and I are food-loving travelers who work in the arts. While we are based in Brooklyn, NY, we have also traveled all over the world and have been blessed to eat our way around as well.

Since early 2011, David and I eat and live with a paleolithic food approach. Although often called the “caveman diet,” we believe eating and living “paleo” can be done without sacrificing sophistication, variety, and deliciousness, whether cooking at home or dining out. For us, it’s about knowing what to eat and making smart choices.

Here’s our little background in eating and living “paleo”:

At home, I am an avid cook; David is an excellent sous-chef and an appreciative eater. We love trying interesting restaurants, wherever we go. Given the nature of our work, we often work abroad with odd and/or long hours. When abroad, sightseeing rarely happens (too tired) but eating surely does (there’s no stopping hunger). And when we eat, we like for our meal experience to “count.” Whether it’s a tiny, hole-in-the-wall hidden gems or a special occasion/once-in-a-lifetime restaurant, we do our research, investigation and cross-referencing. We strive for that “Best (insert delicious food item) we ever ate!” experience. Our travel memories generally form around the foods we eat, and we have eaten fabulous meals all over the world.

Loving eating and dining as we do, the idea that we would conform to any kind of “diet” was unexpected. First, we read The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. We were intrigued and tried the diet: at the time David was recovering from an invasive knee surgery and having difficulty losing the weight he’d gained post-op, no matter how much he worked out everyday. Until then, David had one of the fastest metabolisms I’ve ever known — so his weight gain and inability to shed it was new and weird. Changing our diet according to the Four Hour Body seemed to kick start his metabolism immediately. With this positive feedback, we continued reading about the ideas behind the Four Hour Body and came across Robb Wolf on Tim Ferriss’s website. In the winter of 2011, after reading Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution, my husband and I began the paleolithic diet. Robb Wolf’s book was eye-opening and inspirational, and so we tried eating paleo for a month. Since then, we have adopted eating “paleo” as a full-time lifestyle. (I was especially influenced by this excerpt.)

Has going “paleo” changed our foodie approach to culinary adventures and experience? Not at all.

There are various ways to eat and live “paleo.” Robb Wolf succinctly outlines the types in a post on his website, Seven Shades of Paleo. David and I would fall under the category of the fifth shade, “80/20 Paleo.”  We avoid the following:

• All grains and legumes, especially wheat (no gluten)
• Simple sugars
• Dairy (except ghee and occasional goats milk products)

We eat the following in moderation:

• Fruit
• Tubers
• Nuts
• Dark chocolate (80%+ cocoa)

We eat all types of meat, fish, and vegetables — we buy organic produce whenever possible, and try to eat grass-fed meats and free-range pasture-raised organic eggs. We drink wine and, occasionally, spirits, but without any sugary juices or mixers as much as possible.

Since eating “paleo,” we have never felt better — making “paleo” our lifestyle has proven easy and, clearly, beneficial to our health. We don’t feel restricted or deprived by what we can and cannot eat. Although I thought it would be impossible for me to give up cheese, for instance, I don’t miss or crave it. (We occasionally have goats cheese, but it’s seldom.)  My body knows it won’t feel good after eating cheese any more. Nowadays, were we to “cheat” and have some bread, for instance, we really have trouble sleeping through the night or simply don’t feel right. It’s  just not worth it.

And so — here, I have begun a blog, which is a kitchen-sink diary of my food(ie) experiences, musings, cookings and inspirations as we eat and live “paleo.” My aspiration is to share how satisfying it is to eat and live paleo. It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle approach.  And it can be delicious and fabulous. x

**Recipes, text and images on this site are original creations and property of Tomoko Minami.   If you wish to share a recipe from this website, please post a direct link to the recipe.  Please do not reproduce the actual recipe or text without approval.**