Wondrous food to explore and enjoy

Gastro Obscura

Bobbing for apples in the early 1900s.

Halloween Used to Be a Lot More Romantic

The food rituals of All Hallows' Eve once predicted marriages and summoned spouses.

Places to Eat & Drink

London, England

Café in the Crypt

This coffee shop lies hidden beneath a historic church.

Hoswick's cake shelter (Emma's Cake Corner).

Bixter, Scotland

Shetland Cake Fridges and Honesty Boxes

Across the islands, baked goods, sauces, and much more are for sale 24/7.

Williamsburg, Virginia

The King’s Arms Tavern

Dine like an American revolutionary at Colonial Williamsburg.

Omas and Opas at work.

Vienna, Austria

Vollpension

Visiting this café is like visiting the Austrian grandma you wish you had.

See All Unique Places to Eat

Stories

The Morettino's coffee plants in Palermo, Italy.

Climate Change and the Dream of Growing Coffee in Sicily

As temperatures rise, one family hopes to establish the world’s northernmost coffee plantation.

BY Lorenzo Tondo

The gruesome concoctions definitely caused more harm than good.

Europeans Once Drank Distilled Human Skulls as Medicine

"Corpse medicine" created a booming market for craniums, especially mossy ones.

BY Diana Hubbell

A witch cake from the village of Bempton, which collector William Clarke dated to 1850.

Remembering ‘Witch Cakes,’ the Evil-Fighting Baked Goods of the 1600s

Are these cakes weapons against dark forces or just “spiky bagels”?

Bone Woman is one of the yokai in the "Haunted Coffee" collection.

Meet the Ghosts Behind a Japanese City's 'Haunted' Coffee

These yokai make a scary good brew.

BY Selena Takigawa Hoy

A plate depicting a woman ready to fire her shot with her kylix.

Ancient Drinking Games Ended With Wine Stains and Stabbing

Inebriated play, from ancient Rome to Tang Dynasty China.

A small group picnics on ledger-style tombstones in Historic St. Luke's Ancient Cemetery. The photo is not dated but is believed to have been taken prior to St. Luke's 1957 Pilgrimage Service.

Remembering When Americans Picnicked in Cemeteries

For a time, eating and relaxing among the dead was a national pastime.

BY Jonathan Kendall

<em>Koko Sāmoa</em> is practically the national drink.

In Samoa, Hot Chocolate Is Homegrown

Growing, grinding, and drinking koko Sāmoa brings families together.

BY Tiare Tuuhia