Unity through food: OC food influencers to check out

@foodwithbros

Tsun Scoops in Garden Grove, CA #icecream #anime #gardengrove #foodie #tiktokfood #uwu

♬ Kimi No Toriko – Rizky Ayuba

With businesses opening up again after a long year of desolate streets and cooking at home, influencers across Orange County are blogging about “diamond in the rough” restaurants and food stops worth checking out. From TikTok to Instagram, food influencers ranging from 20,000-300,000 followers show off small businesses all across the county. 

FoodwithBros on TikTok primarily recommends Asian and Mexican cuisines, burgers and boba spots, including different birria taco spots and pho places. Some of their most popular videos highlight various-anime themed pop-up shops and restaurants, such as “Tsun Scoops” located in Garden Grove and the anime pop-up event called “So Cal Anime.”

OcTourGuide by Marissa Lee on TikTok has amassed 70,000 followers and just over two million likes. Lee focuses on more opinion-based content, with videos rating different shabu-shabu and poke places across Orange County. Her videos are easy to follow, showing off what makes each restaurant special. The videos where she recommends different 

Over on Instagram, CapricornCow recommends a variety of different foods, and is especially known for featuring new branches of boba places, such as Feng Cha and Kefir Mix. While also owning a personal cooking account, user CapricornCow occasionally shows off his own creations, with the recipes for treats like ube mochi waffles and blueberry lemon tarts embedded in the comments. David Chiem, DavidtheFoodie on Instagram, is by far one of the most popular OC food bloggers, with his verified account having over 300,000 followers. While Chiem shows off more high-end selections, he also shows a lot of his own recipes that he crafts, with the full recipes in the captions for his audience to recreate. Chiem specializes in shrimp-based dishes, along with many variations of spicy Asian cuisines across Orange County.
With tons of exposure to smaller businesses and restaurants that have been made through food bloggers, social media allows for a new medium of reviews, recommendations and more. Businesses across Orange County have become increasingly exposed to tourists and locals alike, uniting people through various foods and specialty dishes within every culture. 

“I’ve followed a few food bloggers on social media and it allowed me to broaden my entire perspective on many things through food,” junior Nikki Doiphode said. “It’s really interesting to see people’s different opinions about food because everyone comes from different backgrounds, which makes food blogging even more insightful and unique.”