Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around San Diego and North County, including stops in Carlsbad and Oceanside. We start our journey at the source at the legendary Chino Farm, where three generations of Japanese American Chinos have been growing incredible produce used by chefs throughout California.

Our next stop is a visit with Jeff Lozano, a brand ambassador at San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing, one of the foundational craft beer makers in a city famous for its great beer.

The journey then heads up Interstate 5 to Carlsbad, where we catch up with Eric Bost, a prolific chef behind the newly opened Wildland and the soon-to-open tasting menu restaurant Lilo. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California.

More places we visited: Rare Society, City Tacos, Tribute Pizza, Wayfarer Bread, Aisu Creamery, Little Fox Cups and Cones, Wrench & Rodent.

You can visit the Salk Institute for Biological Studies by reserving a spot on a weekly docent-led tour.

And some great hotels to keep in mind: Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa and the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.

This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?