‘Good, and good for you’

One of the great things about eating food from The Hunter & The Farmer food truck is that you know it’s good for you. The truck’s Paleo-centric offerings are focused on a no-nonsense, healthful food palette similar to that eaten by our Paleolithic-era ancestors. Their menu contains, for instance, no refined sugar or flour, and is heavy on grass-fed meats and fresh vegetables and fruits.

Another great thing about The Hunter & The Farmer’s food is that it is very delicious.

On a recent visit to the truck, during its regular Thursday Night Market stint on the east side of Chico City Plaza, my 12-year-old daughter Lydia and I ordered chile verde ($10) and the Taco Smash ($9), The Hunter & The Farmer’s near-famous dish featuring seasoned grass-fed ground beef atop smashed yams, topped with sliced avocado and salsa. We also shared a cutely named “ammin-nut” Farmer’s Frostee ($5), made with almond butter, almond milk, raw cocoa powder and banana (almonds are favored by Paleo eaters and dairy is not, thus almond milk is a perfect Paleo food).

Our Mexican-themed dishes—which came in eco-friendly cardboard containers stamped with the business’ logo and the words “Eat real food”—were very delicious. The pork in the chile verde, which was served over a bed of raw cabbage, was pleasingly tender. The strong flavor of cumin (used in curry seasoning in Indian cooking, and usually to a less-noticeable extent in the chili powder of Mexican cuisine) was quite present, giving the chile verde more of an Indian than a Mexican flair. No matter—it was yummy.

As for the Taco Smash: Any person who has not yet tried the food-truck’s signature dish (and thus become one of the growing number of people who swear by its goodness) should do so. It is a thoroughly tasty and satisfying meal, and one has, after that last bite is gone, the satisfying, “clean” feeling of having eaten something really nutritious.

Our Farmer’s Frostee, which we shared, was just right—not too sweet (and not too unsweet), and nice and cold on a hot day.

So, the next week we went back to the Thursday Night Market and got another almond-milk Frostee (this time the menu pointed out that it was made with almond milk from top-notch local almond-milk maker Beber).

On that visit, I ordered the chile colorado ($9.50), made with grass-fed and -finished beef from Flournoy’s Turri Farms cooked in a tomato gravy, served over raw cabbage and a vegetable hash. Other menu possibilities on that visit included the Super Smash ($11), which is a Taco Smash plus tomato, bell pepper, carrot and lettuce, and The Stacker ($9): Turri Farms pastrami, guacamole and carrots sandwiched between two slices of bell pepper (don’t expect to find bread at The Hunter & The Farmer—as their Facebook page puts it: “Bread? Nope. Kale? Dope.”).

I also opted for a little dessert—a mint fruit salad ($4) made with diced melon, nectarine slices, various berries and bits of fresh mint.

The chile colorado was, as I had expected, most scrumptious. I especially enjoyed the finely julienned veggie hash that cradled it along with the cabbage; contrasting the uncooked crunchy cabbage with the warm, soft hash was a good idea, I thought.

The fruit salad was a nice, crisp touch to finish my meal, which I conveniently ate while sitting on a park bench next to The Hunter & The Farmer truck.

Indeed, the food served by The Hunter & The Farmer (named for owners/chefs Jenna Hunter and Analise Farmer) is the epitome of the old saying, “Good, and good for you!”