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Daniel Michael Hernández 🌞 ✍🏽

@longdrivesouth

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Food @latimes 🌞 2022 Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism, 2x JBA nominee. Bilingual border brother. I consume 🌵 daily. Fiat Lux!

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Before everything picks up in 2K23, I wanted to post this personal highlight from 2K22 because I hadn't on here ...

It was a good but challenging year. I worked harder than I had ever worked, bearing in mind I *also said this about the launch of Vice News in Mexico *and the relaunch of LA Taco here in L.A. No but seriously, in '22, I really, truly worked harder than ever -- and about in September, my body finally said, Here's the proof. (But let's not dwell on that right now.)

So above, for posterity's sake, the full video of my remarks at the 2022 awards banquet for the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. I was named inaugural recipient of the Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism. To recap, before joining Food, I had submitted a suite of pieces of my strongest fieldwork in urban Southern California from the year before, figuring, why not? It was all cultural stories from '21, that bridge era directly after the initial shock of the pandemic. On the streets of L.A., on the web, in the gladiator dome of American media and politics, in the culture, on our plates.

In a chaotic and improvised way, these lines encapsulate my theory and practice on journalism ("Theese is where" lol 🤣).

Whether writing or editing or building stories in any form, it was a supreme honor doing this work for you last year, and hopefully will be for many more years into the future. I always tell people I write for my friends. I picture every reader -- each one of you -- as a cohort, a co-conspirator, and a mischief maker just like me.

Thanks for joining me, supporting, clicking through, and responding. Feliz año nuevo! Happy 2K23! 🥳 by @longdrivesouth

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4 years ago

I'll gatekeep something for myself for years ... Then one day, I'll just drop the shield, and launch a love letter. 💋

My ode to Drink Like a Fish at @themermaidla 🐠🐠🐠 I take my rum cocktails v v seriously and this one does it for me every time. Every one of the *multiple times I find myself sipping on it right here. 😅

Read more at this week's L.A. OMNIVORE at @latimesfood, and sign up for the newsletter so my dispatches go straight to your inbox! 📥

Or see link in bio 🔗 https://www.latimes.com/food/newsletter/2026-10-14/uncanny-valley-ai-generated-food-menu

#cocktails #LosAngeles #rum #LittleTokyo #bars by @longdrivesouth

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4 days ago

With love to my people in Texas and other states .... When factoring in the food, diversity, geography and industrial and innovative might, there's just no way I can't be a California exceptionalist. Are you one as well?

I think it's time we defend our state's name and stand up to the naysayers. Musk, Miller, Hilton and all the other haters are dead wrong.

Read more at 🔗 in bio! @latimesfood #CaliforniaRepublic by @longdrivesouth

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10 days ago

In the latest edition of L.A. Omnivore, @longdrivesouth discusses a recent dinner at the pop-up Leña @lena.los.angeles, by chef Jimmy Reyes, and poses a question: Why doesn't Los Angeles have an upscale modern Salvadoran restaurant similar to Popoca in Oakland?

Cookbook author Karla Tatiana Vasquez @salvisoul points out that opportunities for Central Americans still remain limited in L.A.

Link in bio to read more.

📸: @el_terrible_eric
🎥: @brendabroadcast by @longdrivesouth

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12 days ago

Mi reporte ... I'm fascinated by the depth and complexity of an LA diaspora from the smallest lil country in Central America, el *pulgarcito de El Salvador. I didn't grow up around Salvadorans at all. LA has exposed me to so much while lowkey keeping me free from any latent even or subconscious biases. Salvis comprise the second Latin American national subgroup in LA but are still radically dwarfed by Mexicanos -- by 74% to 9% -- a diaspora so sprawling our regionalisms are actually more important than the 🇲🇽 flag.

A few years ago, there was some Extremely Online millennial chatter rallying against "Mexican hegemony" and my gut always told me it was a divisive and really self-defeating way to frame a reality that isn't any of our doing. Mexico is huge. ES is very small. This land, with its struggles and challenges, is shared by all. So is the California culture, and the subcultures that churn within it.

All of these DeEp ThOuGhTs sprang for me after a nice tasting menu dinner at @lena.los.angeles in Boyle Heights. 🇸🇻😊🍽

Thank you to everyone I met, spoke to and interviewed for this piece. Sign up to receive LA OMNIVORE in your inbox and Link in Bio 🔗 or read here:

https://www.latimes.com/food/newsletter/2026-09-30/lena-salvadoran-pop-up-restaurant

#LosAngeles #California #CentralAmerica #restaurante #elsalvador🇸🇻 by @longdrivesouth

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17 days ago

Pictures of food that make you wanna puke. Not exactly a rousing marketing ploy. Or ... is it?

In the inaugural edition of L.A. Omnivore, Daniel Hernandez’s weekly newsletter on food and culture, @longdrivesouth writes about the rise of menus featuring AI-generated images of food and talks to the owner of Hollywood’s Los Burritos Originales who says his AI signs are bringing in new customers.

📹 @longdrivesouth, @brendabroadcast by @longdrivesouth

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25 days ago

haPpY hisPANICK HeRiTagE mOnTh 🤪

I am guest writer on today's Essential California.

Click below to read. And now that this is firmly established ... in future editions of LA OMNIVORE, I'll be discussing the problems inherit to group identifiers, Indigenous erasure, and other implications of this data. 🤓

🔗

https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2026-09-17/almost-all-restaurant-food-you-eat-in-la-is-hispanic

#hispanic #latino #indigenous by @longdrivesouth

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a month ago

A shift. A change. After four years as a section editor at a major daily, it's time to go back to writing! ✍️🏽

I'm launching a newsletter on food and culture at the LATimes, to help bolster coverage of what we eat, how and why, and how food cultures intersect with just about everything.

It's called LA OMNIVORE. It's gonna be fun -- and challenging! SIGN UP AT LINK. 🔗 https://www.latimes.com/newsletters/la-omnivore-sign-up

Why now? ...

If you know me, you know I love a sharp pivot, a slighly scary risk. And because life is really just a parade of gratitude, I want to thank again everyone I've worked with in Food, and at the paper at large these past years. I've learned so much and am a new journalist entitely because of it. 🫶🏽 THANK YOU. ⚡️🫵🏽❤️‍🔥

More soon! SIGN UP! Send me ideas and tips too! taken in Los Angeles, California by @longdrivesouth

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a month ago

Just finished reading ... #Zorra, by @gabrielajauregui -- transparency, a close friend. What I will add here is that "zorra" is also pejorative slang for "slut" or a promiscuous woman. 📚📚📚 the cover is by @piacamil #books #bookstagram #reading #bilingual by @longdrivesouth

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2 months ago

Selfie drop. 📍 Thank you my loved ones for an incredible summer ☀️ 💜💙🩵 by @longdrivesouth

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2 months ago

Another August, another visit south to see my friends. 🥹

As I take stock of this extended journey in México, watch this rain and pray for the people of Colombia, my heart and mind are bursting with feels about ... everything. Los quiero mucho. 💞

#Mexico taken in Ciudad de México by @longdrivesouth

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2 months ago

Snapshots de Papantla ➡️ El Tajín ➡️ Xalapa, #Veracruz 💞 taken in Veracruz, Mexico by @longdrivesouth

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2 months ago