Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide
by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras
Workman Publishing Company
Description
A New York Times, USA Today, and national indie bestseller.
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
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781523502196 |
| PRICE | $42.50 (USD) |
| PAGES | 448 |
Our Thoughts
Gastro Obscura explores the world through what it eats, and sometimes, what it shouldn’t eat. The book is divided up by location, with lots of illustrations, captions, and sidebars, and most stories take no more than a page or two to tell, so it can be read piecemeal (sorry) or cover to cover. Regular readers of Atlas Obscura, Mental Floss, and other such sites will know some of these stories, but there is still plenty to learn and digest (sorry again). My one wish would be for more citations and/or an index to learn more about certain sections.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) — A few more citations would’ve made it perfect, but still a dazzling culinary journey.
