This week on the Enlightened Omnivore Podcast, I chat with someone who has not only reported on, but also shaped Southern California’s food scene.
Cynthia Rebolledo is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in OC Weekly, KCET, KCRW, LAist, and a number of other influential publications that define what we think of as SoCal food culture.
If you’ve wondered where the best taco is in Boyle Heights, or wanted to hunt down the perfect pupusa on Instagram, or pondered what “Modern Mexican cuisine” really means — you’d benefit from chatting up Cynthia.
But like many of us who grew up in the Southland, she first wanted to make movies. In fact, food was just one of the languages she used to understand the world around her. It’s now become a cultural compass she didn’t realize she was carrying all along. And lucky for us, she’s navigated expertly with it.
Where Her Story Began: A Cheese Older Than California
Every great food writer has an origin story, but Cynthia’s might be the most delicious.
She comes from a long line of queseros, cheese makers, from a tiny rancho in Zacatecas, Mexico. Born in Yorba Linda, she can’t remember not eating her family’s specialty, queso añejo, a salty, deeply aromatic, cheese that’s been in her family since the 1800s. Lovingly called queso de pata — “foot cheese” for its pungent aroma, it’s an heirloom of her ancestry— a tangible link to place, history, identity. A reminder that food isn’t just consumed; it’s inherited.
Foodways, Not Freeways
Cynthia introduced me to the term foodways — the cultural, economic, regional, and historical routes that food travels. And in Southern California, where freeways dominate every map, foodways tell an even truer story of who we are:
They show what ingredients families carried across borders.
They reveal what disappeared through migration — and what survived.
They explain why dishes with the same name can taste completely different, and still be equally “authentic.”
Why Authenticity Might Be Overrated
Many of us have probably clicked on a link that sought the “most authentic tacos,” or the “best Mexican food!” But Cynthia challenged me to rethink the entire framework, avoiding the term all together.
“Food is ever evolving. It’s shared, it’s borrowed, it is always growing.”
Her point: Two families from the same town can make the “same” dish completely differently — and both versions are valid.
Food isn’t a museum piece. It’s alive. It adapts to migration, memory, scarcity, abundance, neighborhood, and necessity.
Authenticity is personal, not universal. That’s a refreshing take in a world obsessed with “Top 10” lists that chase clicks harder than they chase accuracy.
Feeding Us While Living in Fear
We couldn’t ignore the truth haunting Southern California’s food world right now: fear is being used as a weapon — and it’s aimed at the very people who feed us.
Street vendors aren’t setting up. Kitchen crews are shrinking. Farmworkers, the invisible backbone of our food system, are staying home out of fear.
Cynthia told the story of Mr. Diablito, a fruit vendor who worked the same Santa Ana corner that my butcher shop was one. When the National Guard arrived, he stayed home for the first time in 30 years.
He’s a legal resident. It didn’t matter.
This is what happens when fear controls the people with the least power — and why their stories can’t go untold.
Food Trends and Cynthia’s Top Picks
I always love to hear about the most current food trends, and Cynthia got to offer her thoughts on where things are headed in 2026. Her guess is the continued interest in heirloom corn and tortillas made in-house from regional varieties instead of that mass-produced Maseca stuff. Tortillas are quietly shifting from delivery mechanism to culinary centerpiece.
Make sure to stick around until the end of our conversation for some great tips on where to eat in LA, Orange County, and beyond. And you’ll also get a special recommendation for where she sends all her friends for dinner locally.
Final Thoughts
My conversation with Cynthia reminds me of why I started this podcast: Food isn’t just what’s on the plate — it’s who we are, where we come from, how we adapt, how we survive, and how we stay connected.
Southern California’s foodways aren’t just delicious, they’re historical, political, ancestral, and alive.
If you want to understand why this region tastes the way it does — and why protecting the people behind the food matters — you’ll want to listen in today.
Links and Further Readings
Cynthia’s instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/sqzmyorange...) and her recent piece on El Diablito, Jose Rodriguez (https://www.cultureoc.org/post/immigr...)
Cynthia talks about her family’s queso añejo tradition in this LA Eater article (https://www.eater.com/24360556/queso-....
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