Here's what happened: a new Palestinian restaurant opened up — exciting news for anyone who loves great food. An influencer's fiancé commented on a post celebrating the spot, saying the "food here gotta be bomb." That's it. That was the comment. Sounds like... enthusiasm?

But someone did some digging into his follow list and discovered he follows some right-leaning political accounts. From there, the logic leapt: he follows conservative influencers, therefore his comment was suspect, therefore his fiancé can't be trusted to authentically celebrate Palestinian cuisine, therefore "food is political."

Let's slow down.

We're now auditing the Instagram follows of influencers' partners to determine whether their restaurant recommendations are ideologically pure? This is where we are?

Look, everyone's entitled to choose who they support and who they don't. If you want to unfollow someone because of their politics, go for it. Free country. But the idea that a dude can't say food "gotta be bomb" without having his voter registration scrutinized is the kind of exhausting hall-monitor energy that makes people tune out entirely.

Here's what actually matters: a new Palestinian restaurant opened in town. That's great. The Bay Area food scene thrives on diversity and new arrivals. As one local food lover put it, they'd love to see people "doing a deeper dive into the different cuisines here" the way legendary LA Times critic Jonathan Gold once did for Los Angeles. Same energy. More exploring, less policing.

Another Bay Area resident raised a point worth far more attention: the "hollowing out" of mid-range sit-down restaurants in the $15–20 range, with favorites closing and getting replaced by DoorDash ghost kitchens. That's a food crisis worth talking about — not someone's boyfriend's follow list.

The best thing you can do for a new restaurant — Palestinian, Israeli, or anything else — is show up, eat the food, and tip well. The worst thing you can do is turn every meal into a loyalty oath.

Eat local. Think freely. Skip the purity tests.