Being born and raised just a few minutes south of San Francisco,we had all kinds of restaurants-all types of cuisines. Not as many as there are today,but we had Chinese delivered at least once a month,went out for Italian on a regular basis and as far as fruits and vegetables,I grew up eating avocados,artichokes,asparagus and pretty much every fruit or vegetable you can think of,year `round. The only now common one that I had never seen until I was in my 20`s is kiwis. I remember a friend that I met right after I was married,who was also a newlywed,who had just moved to California from the Midwest,had never even heard of artichokes or avocados-nevermind ever tasted them!