Devour the Desert
A Palm Springs Food & Culture Journal
The Local Flavors | When Fish Tacos Surrender to Gravity
There comes a moment with some dishes when you realize the original plan is no longer viable.
You intended to pick it up.
The chef had other ideas.
The al pastor fish tacos at Maleza arrive looking, technically, like tacos. There is a handmade flour tortilla involved. There is fish. There are toppings.
But that's where the similarities to ordinary tacos end.
The Local Questions, Vol. 1 | Field Notes From Palm Springs
If you spend even a little time here, you start to notice something strange.
Not the obvious stuff—sunshine, palm trees, mountains that look like a painted backdrop—but the quieter questions that keep popping up when you’re standing in line for coffee or driving down Palm Canyon wondering why everything feels slightly unreal in the best possible way.
Here are a few of those questions.
Call it field notes. Call it curiosity. Call it what happens when a desert refuses to behave like anywhere else.
The Local Flavors | Lola Rose and the Hummus That Could
Some side dishes know their place.
A basket of flat bread arrives to keep you occupied while you wait. A small plate of humble hummus appears as an appetizer, dutifully performing its supporting role before the main event arrives.
But some side dishes have greater aspirations. They think they are the Little Engine That Could. They want to make it to the top of the mountain.
And a few... very few... actually do.
Lola Rose's hummus belongs in this final category.
The Local Culture | The Oasis of Palm Springs: Nothing This Beautiful Happens by Accident
Palm Springs is a city built on optimism.
It is also built on plumbing.
Visitors rarely think about this. They are understandably distracted by mountain views, perfectly chilled martinis, impossibly blue swimming pools and citrus trees that appear to have signed a long-term lease with the sun.
Everything feels effortless.
It isn't.
The Local Architecture | Atomic Dreams & Coffee Shops: John Lautner, Googie and the Palm Springs State of Mind
By the 1950s and 60s, Palm Springs had become an unlikely playground for architectural experimentation. Hollywood stars escaped Los Angeles for weekends in the desert, bringing money, glamour, and a taste for the futuristic. Architects arrived eager to test radical ideas under endless blue skies.
The Local History | Meet the Pioneer Women Who Created Palm Springs
Before Palm Springs was a mid-century modern oasis filled with Hollywood glitz, it was a rugged, isolated desert outpost. The oasis of palm trees and hot springs was a challenging place to live, yet in the early 20th century, a remarkable group of determined women settled this arid valley, laying the foundation for the glamorous resort town we know today.