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Our first time in Cabo San Lucas, situated on the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, we knew it would be more margaritas and less Mayan ruins. This is a sun-and-fun getaway for Americans: you can use dollars interchangeably with pesos, you’ll find both Costco and a luxury shopping mall, and it seems almost every visitor we spoke to owned a time share. And if you don’t own a time share, there is someone with a clipboard who would like to speak with you.

In case you haven’t heard, Tijuana is the next big thing in food. Not only have people in the know been frequenting Baja for years, but the media finally caught on, too. Anthony Bourdain, Rick Bayless, and Andrew Zimmern made recent trips with camera crews in tow, and media darling Javier Plascencia was profiled by the New Yorker and the New York Times for innovative cuisine served in a modern glass box above the city’s rainbow-colored bungalows.

Organic food is what we are meant to be eating. It contains no additives, preservatives, fertilizers, or pesticides—widely associated with various types of cancer. It is not genetically modified—widely believed to cause organ damage and other serious health problems. It has not been sterilized with radiation or ammonia, like most fast food meat. Organic farms are required to constantly test both their products for nutrients as well as their irrigation water (non-organic farms use “sewer water” that can contain biosolids like heavy metals, lawn pesticides, gas, detergents). Convinced yet?

In the second installment of our three-part video series exploring local, organic, and sustainable food in San Diego, we pay a visit to fishmonger and local personality Tommy Gomes at Catalina Offshore Products. Click here to watch the video.

In the first installment of our three-part video series exploring the challenges of serving local, organic, and sustainable food in San Diego restaurants, we sit down with Jay Porter at his two North Park eateries, The Linkery and El Take It Easy. Click here to watch the video.

PHOTO ESSAY: Visiting my brother and his family in Santa Cruz with a stop at Manresa restaurant in nearby Los Gatos

“30th on 30th“—held on 30th Street on the 30th of each month in North Park, San Diego—is a food and drink event that promotes a handful of neighborhood restaurants while also encouraging the community to come together and celebrate chefs who value sustainable and local ingredients. Eaters can enjoy an affordable bite and one of San Diego’s renowned craft beers in front of the establishments, so people can essentially “food hop,” if you will, from one place to another. In the end, it’s a bit like a food-obsessed block party, and—in the eighth largest city in the country—patrons are able to enjoy the communal bounty of just one tasty street.

I have a love-hate relationship with San Diego. Maybe “hate” is too strong a word. I love the weather and natural beauty; I “regret” the lack of culture and good food. I have discussed this dilemma with many San Diegans—why is San Diego, the eighth largest city in the country, bigger than foodie playgrounds San Francisco and Seattle, so devoid of intellectual curiosity and an ambitious restaurant scene? The two go hand in hand, if you ask me. If you’re not curious about the outside world, and, let’s say, never travel to places other than Las Vegas (Disneyland for adults) or Hawaii (San Diego on steroids), how do you expect to compete as a cosmopolitan city if you don’t know what other cities have to offer? Hone your taste buds by eating a shrimp po’ boy on toasted buttery bread in New Orleans; or paper-thin egg pasta with Brussels sprouts and pancetta in North Beach, San Francisco; or Szechuan soup spiked with chili oil and scallions in Flushing, Queens; then tell me you don’t demand more from your chefs back home. I don’t blame it on the chefs either. Try making an inventive meal and having someone who thinks “Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade” is tops push it around on her plate.

My brother Oliver was supposed to deejay with renowned local DJ Day at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs last week. Unfortunately, the set got cancelled due to a party that was booked in its place, but we decided to hit up Palm Springs anyway and pay a visit to Joshua Tree, a favorite of Oliver’s. As always, I was on a quest for good food. Did I find it? Kind of.

After attending an Outstanding in the Field farm dinner in southern California two months earlier, I was interested to see how a Plate & Pitchfork farm dinner would stack up. OITF leads events throughout the United States and the crew travels in a large bus; Plate & Pitchfork is an Oregon-only series of dinners. Both pull local chefs and wineries to cook and pour at different farms, so each evening is its own unique experience. Plate & Pitchfork had me at “hello” with their informational email: “children, no matter how small and adorable, may not attend dinner.” First of all, apologies to my many friends with (indeed) adorable children, but you gotta love the blunt. Second, this must be in the best interests of the farm and hosts; there is enough chaos at these dinners that it would probably become some version of a food-loving wedding reception if children were allowed. (And no one needs little Jimmy falling in the pig mud.)