Here’s What You Picked to Be California’s State Food

While driving south of Fresno recently, I passed through the city of Selma, which proudly proclaims itself to be the world’s raisin capital, its emblem a plump bunch of purple grapes on a globe. Nearby is the world’s largest box of raisins, a roadside tourist attraction, and a community quite literally named Raisin City.

I knew about Gilroy and garlic, Castroville and artichokes, Oxnard and strawberries. And here was yet another crop that had left a distinct cultural legacy in California. This got me thinking about how we define which foods are most Californian, given the sprawl and diversity of our state, and it prompted me to ask you to help choose a quintessential state food. (Though California has a state flower, state reptile and state rock, lawmakers have shied away from choosing an official state food.)

Well, several hundred of your emails later, the results are in.

More of you suggested avocados than any other food, by a wide margin. California is the nation’s leading producer of the fruit, and the especially creamy Hass avocado was even invented in Los Angeles County.

Perhaps you think avocados aren’t a meal on their own, but my fifth-grade teacher in Southern California ate one with a spoon every day for lunch. And as one reader, Regan Davis, pointed out, “Just about any food with the word ‘California’ in it contains avocado.”