Strawberry in Everything

Oxnard, CA-Toss away salty pepperoni for sweet and tart strawberry slices. Replace the pumps of gooey processed cheese for ladles of syrupy strawberries. Relax over a glass of strawberry merlot or champagne, or fight the stifling mid-May heat with a strawberry beer.

Oxnard’s Strawberry Fields

Oxnard, CA-”I’ve been around them all my life and I still love them,” says Glen Hasegawa, a third generation strawberry farmer.

There is nothing quite like biting into a shiny, juicy red strawberry that unleashes equally tart and sweet flavors with a mild pineapple background. Fresh from the basket, hours or days from picking, riper strawberries glide off the tongue, while younger berries add a satisfying crunch.

Oxnard’s Strawberry Blast Off Challenge

After defeating three other contestants in a 60-minute recipe cook-off the previous week, Debbie McDermott of Thousand Oaks, California and Wendy Taber of Ventura, California face off against one another at the 25th California Strawberry Festival. McDermott’s entry is a strawberry tiramisu while Taber offers a strawberry gazpacho salad. At stake, a four day cruise package, but also the right to claim the title of strawberry maven for a year.

Festivalgoers looking for a respite from the stifling heat converge at Strawberry Promenade, the heart of the festival’s food corridor. Outside, the energetic crowds pack up flats of freshly picked camarosa strawberries from local growers such as Glen Hasegawa’s Isla Vista Farms. Inside, the competitors jest with the crowd as they answer questions and muse between chopping, slicing, mixing and smearing.

Chili: Equal Parts Passion, Craft and Pride

San Bernardino, CA-Blistering under the early May sunshine, spicy aromas of slow cooked beef and pork swirl through the air as contestants of the California State 35th Annual Chili Cook Off stir, chop, blend, mix and serve samples of their one-pot meals to hundreds of hungry and curious chili enthusiasts. Attendees pay $3 per person for a full day of tasting of chili, menudo or salsa, with proceeds going to the City Parks and Recreation Department.

Brewing behind each of the stalls are pots of chilies, spices, stock and meat. Competition is in four categories: chili con carne (traditional red chili), chili verde (green chili), salsa and menudo (beef tripe stew). Sponsored by the International Chili Society, first place prizes range from $200 for Salsa to $1,000 for traditional chili (chili con carne). At stake is the chance to represent California at the World Championships, but for many competitors, being among friends is reward itself.

Part One: Solvang’s Savory Side

In the Santa Ynez Valley, just 35 miles north of Santa Barbara and a two-and-a-half hour drive from Los Angeles, Solvang (“Sunny Fields”) is a quaint village that is home to Scandinavian, Eastern European and Californian culture. It is rich in Danish food traditions while surrounded by modern day wineries and vineyards.

Founded by Danes in 1911 looking to establish a Danish-type folk school for their children, the village is known for its warmth and hospitality. Buildings along Mission Drive, the village’s main thoroughfare, still have remnants of earlier days, but the dozens of out-of-town license plates suggest the duality of the village-there is the Solvang tourists experience and the Solvang locals live.

Still, farm-style buildings with blindingsvarerk (half-timbered) walls, tiles and simulated thatch and gleaming copper roofs highlight the “Danish” feel of the village. A quintet of windmills transports visitors to the Danish countryside.

Every March, the village invites visitors to celebrate the “Taste of Solvang” food and wine festival. The highlight of the weekend is the “Walking Smorgasbord.” For $30 per person, participants eat their way through 41 participating restaurants and shops all within the walkable village center.

Grilled Cheese Invitational

Los Angeles, CA-”I’m real cheesy,” says Rana Arian, as she carefully flips her entry into what the Mayor of Cheese calls the “first, sixth annual” Los Angeles Grilled Cheese Invitational. Her sentiments capture the campy fun of the event. But when the laughs subside and the grills start to sizzle, the race to be crowned top cheese can be tense and calculating.

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