Devour the Desert
A Palm Springs Food & Culture Journal
Local Questions, Vol. 13 | Field Notes From Palm Springs: The Little Mysteries We All Wonder About
After a couple of days in Palm Springs, you stop asking tourist questions.
You already know where to find a good margarita.
You've figured out the pool.
You've accepted that the mountains somehow look both impossibly close and impossibly far away.
Instead, your curiosity starts drifting toward the little mysteries.
Why am I suddenly Redfinning real estate ads with my morning latte?
Why are the roofs so low?
Why are all the front doors orange or pink?
Why does the airport feel like the place your vacation actually begins?
And why is the brunch waitress delivering my hash browns decked out in stilettos and a purple feather boa?
The desert, as it turns out, rewards people who notice things.
The Local Questions, Vol. 6 | Field Notes from Palm Springs
Welcome to Field Notes, our grab bag of questions and answers for all things Palm Springs. Today we’re going to focus on a single question, the one I get asked the most when guiding tours.
This question usually arrives somewhere near the end of a tour.
Not, "What's the best restaurant in Palm Springs?"
That's easy enough to Google. Or ask AI.
Instead, "So... where do you go?"
The Local Questions, Vol. 5 | Field Notes From Palm Springs
Live at the Thunderdome: Coyote vs. Roadrunner. Roadrunner vs. Rattlesnake.
We’ve already established in Field Notes, Vol. 4 that coyotes occasionally hunt roadrunners.
Which means that, somewhere out there in the Coachella Valley, the real-life version of the Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons is playing out quite differently from the one we grew up with.
But you may not know that roadrunners in turn hunt rattlesnakes.
It's the desert's rough and tumble version of office politics.
Tonight’s Double Bill:
The Undercard:
Coyote vs. Roadrunner
The Main Event:
Roadrunner vs. Rattlesnake
The Local Questions Vol. 3 | Field Notes from Palm Springs
After enough tours, you realize Palm Springs visitors don't just ask where to eat.
They ask the questions that seem simple—right up until you try answering them.
So what's up with all the orange?
Why are there hummingbirds everywhere?
Should I be worried about the tram?
Every place develops its own frequently asked questions. These happen to be ours.