Bakersfield is a central point for local oil and gas production as well as agriculture of the San Joaquin Valley, and, as the 9th largest city in California, it has a wide-ranging population and culinary tastes to match. There is, of course, excellent Mexican food, the best of it ultra-casual like Loncheria Otro Rollo, which is a red trailer in a gas station parking lot serving hot-sauced Guadalajaran sandwiches (tortas) as well as unique potato tacos. Once a destination for Basque shepherds coming in from the fields, Bakersfield reflects strong Iberian influences, especially in its vintage Basque dining halls. Oldest of them all is the Noriega Hotel, where multi-course meals are served at communal tables at which dishes are passed around boarding-house style.
California's agricultural artery, CA-99, runs through the fertile San Joaquin Valley along side the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Rather than movie studio tours, this showcases the "other California," farms that...
