Gastro Obscura : A Food Adventurer's Guide - Cecily Wong

Gastro Obscura

A Food Adventurer's Guide

By: Cecily Wong, Dylan Thuras, Atlas Obscura

Hardcover | 29 September 2021 | Edition Number 1

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We’ve been stuck at home for long enough! It’s time to get out and taste the world again. From those ever-curious, ever-quirky minds behind the #1 New York Times bestselling Atlas Obscura, with over 800,00 copies in print, comes an unputdownable guide that marries our endless appetite for travel with our insatiable interest in food. Continent by continent, country by country, Gastro Obscura takes up the mantle of Atlas Obscurato radically expand our sense of wonder about the world – in this case, what humans eat and drink, which turns out to be far more marvellous than we could ever imagine.

Created by the founders of AtlasObscura.com, GastroObscura.com delivers fresh food stories daily to the millions of Atlas Obscura readers and Facebook fans, along with its own burgeoning dedicated email newsletter that is currently reaching over 192,000. And it is now serving up the best of it in a lavishly illustrated food-lover’s gift of nearly 500 dishes, ingredients, traditions, and experiences.

Discover English bog butter. 'Threads of God' pasta (only three women know how to make it). The best black bean fritter restaurant in Brazil. The world’s largest floating restaurant. A croissant museum in Poland. Focusing as much on food’s place in our lives as well as our bellies, the book covers history – the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories. Culture – picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding. Travel – scale China's Mount Hua to reach a sacred tea house. Festivals – chase a wheel of double Gloucester at Britain’s annual Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling competition. And such truly surprising delicacies as sturgeon spinal cord, blood tofu, stinkbug tacos, and more.

About the Authors

Cecily Wong is a writer at Atlas Obscura, and the author of the novel Diamond Head, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, recipient of an Elle Readers' Prize, and voted a best debut of the Brooklyn Book Festival. She lives in New York.

Dylan Thuras is the cofounder and creative director of Atlas Obscura, as well as a co-author of Atlas Obscura and The Atlas Obscura Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid. He lives in Rosendale, NY.
Industry Reviews

"[Wong and Thuras'] lavishly photographed volume, more eye-opening than mouthwatering, slakes (and often quells) the armchair gourmand’s appetite. Combing 120 nations and all the continents... they have produced a cabinet of culinary curiosities." —​The New York Times Book Review

"You cannot help but be drawn to Gastro Obscura.” —​The New York Times

"There’s so much information in this book. If you love food, the photos are beautiful and for me, it really made me feel like on my couch like I was getting back out there and traveling again. That’s why I love this book. They know what they’re doing. These books are always good, they’re filled with facts, you gotta pick it up.” —​bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald on the TODAY Show 

"Dylan Thuras and... Cecily Wong pull together some of the most unique, interesting, and incredible festivals, food and drink, and culinary obscurities from around the globe, transporting the reader into parts unknown—both edible and otherwise."—​Smithsonian.com 

"[A] colorfully illustrated, totally entertaining tour through global cuisine, particularly the quirky sort." —​ AARP.com 

“For the traveler or foodie, this coffee table book can transport them around the world with wonderful stories and photos that will leave their stomachs grumbling—all without ever leaving the couch.”  —​Food 52

"[A]n enticing read for anyone who is curious about the world. Like a five-star hotel’s platter-stacked buffet artfully arranged to please the eye and palate, Gastro Obscura stimulates aplenty, with hundreds of rich morsels to peruse and savor." —​Forbes.com

"An incredible celebration of diversity in food" —​Wine Enthusiast 

"[An] encyclopedic odyssey... This compendium is a must-have." —​Publishers Weekly, starred review 

"[Gastro Obscura is a] hard-to-put-down book... Pick a region, pick a page—you can’t go wrong. Armchair travelers and foodies will be left hungry, nostalgic, more knowledgeable about dishes from all over, and, most importantly, ready to try something different, whether it’s found around the corner or across the world."—​Library Journal 

"Irresistible." Booklist 

"A tome to be savored" - Foreward Reviews

"[A] casual and fun and yet intelligent treatment of what essentially is a food encyclopedia on the world and its cuisines." —​Nik Sharma, author of The Flavor Equation

"This captivating book celebrates the incredible global diversity of food, ingredients, and cooking practices. What could be more important in this moment in time than to be so delightfully engaged in the many ways food cultivates—through sometimes eccentric means!—a profound sense of togetherness.” —Alice Waters, chef and author of We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto
 
“An ambitious, exciting, and zany anthology of heritage foodways, Gastro Obscura tells the stories no one else is telling. In creating a magnum opus that manages to be simultaneously daring as well as fundamentally delicious, this is a culinary high-wire act of culinary anthropology that delivers on its promise and then some. A must-read for anyone who eats.” —Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate 
 
“This book is an incredible celebration of diversity – the many fascinating ways that humanity has figured out how to feed itself. To me, it is really about preservation, the power and importance of remembering old customs and local traditions in order to help us better understand our world today … and into the future.” —José Andrés, chef, restaurateur, and founder of World Central Kitchen 

“Like a great tapas meal, Gastro Obscura is deep yet snackable, and full of surprises. In these pages, you'll find riveting stories of human culture ancient and present, history, climate, mythology, commerce and geography -- all through the lens of that thing you thought you already knew: food.  This is the book for anyone interested in eating, adventure and the human condition.” —Tom Colicchio, chef and activist
 
“Thumbing through this exquisite guide kept me at the breakfast table until dinner time.” —Kyle Maclachlan, actor and vintner
 

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