Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide (Atlas Obscura)

by Cecily Wong

Hardcover, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

TX737 .W66

Genres

Publication

Workman Publishing Company (2021), 448 pages

Description

"Taste the World! It's truly a feast of wonder: Created by the ever-curious minds behind Atlas Obscura, this breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia's "Threads of God" pasta? Egypt's 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food's central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history-trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories. Culture-picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding. Travel-scale China's sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house. Festivals-feed wild macaques pyramid of fruit at Thailand's Monkey Buffet Festival. And hidden gems that might be right around the corner, like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full sized pecan pies. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder. "Like a great tapas meal, Gastro Obscura is deep yet snackable, and full of surprises. This is the book for anyone interested in eating, adventure and the human condition." -Tom Colicchio, chef and activist "This exquisite guide kept me at the breakfast table until dinner time." -Kyle Maclachlan, actor and vintner"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member mstrust

A thick, heavy book that introduces the reader to the traditional, rare, and sought after foods from around the world. Each page has a photo or drawing of each item, or the landscape, or the people celebrating a festival devoted to that food, such as the Guimaras Mango Festival in the Philippines,

where for about two US dollars you can enter an all-you-can-eat mango buffet. The reader may be well-traveled but will still find foods that are known only to locals, such as Atrapaniebla beer, made in Chile from cloud condensation, or Jeppson's Malort, a Chicago liquor known as the worst liquor in the world. Or that one of the chefs at the Japanese research station in Antarctica developed a snack there, "devil's rice balls", that became a retail hit back in his home country.
I'm restraining myself from gushing about this book, but I loved it. Combining travel and food, with festivals thrown in and photos of everything, was a winner for me and I now have a list of foods and events to look for.

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LibraryThing member bookmuse56

Gastro Obscura is just a delightful book for all that is interested in food or food history information, as there is something for everyone here.

I enjoyed the format by region and especially liked the sections for the US and was geeked by the Antarctica section which showcased Base Station Cuisine

by country. Each page, country, or region provided me with information that intrigued and informed. I liked that the book goes beyond what is often the “signature” food/dish of a place, but gave me a behind scene lesson into lesser known food patterns/habit. I came away better informed of different cultures and traditions and felt more of a participant of the world.

I recommend this book for fans of Atlas Obscura, foodies, trivia fans and curious readers. And just think of all of the interesting conversations this book will generate if you leave it out on the coffee table for others to browse.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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LibraryThing member quondame

This is a report of all sorts of strange foods, most of which you would have to go far away to experience, some food history and quirky sellers of foods ordinary or unusual. It makes a good filler read - a few or many small bits snacked on as other reading permits or requires.

LibraryThing member Glennis.LeBlanc

Review PDF expired before I started reviewing this

LibraryThing member Daumari

Another internet: the book! Food-related Atlas Obscura entries spun off into Gastro Obscura, blending actual food information, historical factoids, and historical oddities into one coffee table book. A nice browse. North America was definitely disproportionately represented (with regions of the US

on a similar standing with whole countries), but AO is a United States based site so that's unsurprising.

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