Spring Issue: Heading South

Dreams of escaping the doldrums of February to warmer and more unknown parts of the country often inspire our spring issue. This spring, we headed south. We traveled nearly a thousand miles just north of the US-Mexico border, from the high-desert yucca hills of Marfa, Texas, to the salt mist sunshine of San Diego, California. Along the way, we stopped in El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. At each stop, we asked our writers to search for the pulse of the place through its food. As the stories in this issue reveal, the particularities of climates and various cultural convergences have all shaped the food scene of these cities in different ways to create a highly diverse landscape of local food in this northern stretch of borderlands.

Each stop on our southern tour provided pleasant surprises. In Marfa, a rural west Texas town perhaps best known for its art and its eccentrics, a small and daring food scene has quietly developed. El Paso, ensconced in the fertile valley that shares agricultural roots with southern New Mexico wine country, offers art, farming, and hip nightlife not associated with the city since perhaps the 1930s. Tucson, an emblem of both innovative local food and innovative storytelling about food, celebrates its new designation as an UNESCO World City of Gastronomy. All the recipes in this issue generously come from our sister publication, edible Baja Arizona. In San Diego, we diverged from the common tourist trail to community gardens, refuge farming programs, and urban farms, a rewarding and unusual way to experience the coastal city. In each story, writers brought local perspective and expertise to their stories, offering our readers a guide to experience these places in potentially new and deeper ways.

If you find yourself in any of these places, or perhaps several of them if you happen to drive across the country on I-10 one day, we hope this issue provides valuable tips and satisfying meals. We hope too that it provides insights on how to approach travel through exploring local food. Whether it’s a drive to Texas, a flight to San Diego, or anywhere else, may these stories inspire you to seek out the best local food wherever you are.

Dreams of escaping the doldrums of February to warmer and more unknown parts of the country often inspire our spring issue. This spring, we headed south. We traveled nearly a thousand miles just north of the US-Mexico border, from the high-desert yucca hills of Marfa, Texas, to the salt mist sunshine of San Diego, California. Along the way, we stopped in El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. At each stop, we asked our writers to search for the pulse of the place through its food. As the stories in this issue reveal, the particularities of climates and various cultural convergences have all shaped the food scene of these cities in different ways to create a highly diverse landscape of local food in this northern stretch of borderlands.

Each stop on our southern tour provided pleasant surprises. In Marfa, a rural west Texas town perhaps best known for its art and its eccentrics, a small and daring food scene has quietly developed. El Paso, ensconced in the fertile valley that shares agricultural roots with southern New Mexico wine country, offers art, farming, and hip nightlife not associated with the city since perhaps the 1930s. Tucson, an emblem of both innovative local food and innovative storytelling about food, celebrates its new designation as an UNESCO World City of Gastronomy. All the recipes in this issue generously come from our sister publication, edible Baja Arizona. In San Diego, we diverged from the common tourist trail to community gardens, refuge farming programs, and urban farms, a rewarding and unusual way to experience the coastal city. In each story, writers brought local perspective and expertise to their stories, offering our readers a guide to experience these places in potentially new and deeper ways.

If you find yourself in any of these places, or perhaps several of them if you happen to drive across the country on I-10 one day, we hope this issue provides valuable tips and satisfying meals. We hope too that it provides insights on how to approach travel through exploring local food. Whether it’s a drive to Texas, a flight to San Diego, or anywhere else, may these stories inspire you to seek out the best local food wherever you are.