Gastro Obscura
What's near me?
Gastro Obscura
These plastic-cheese replicas don't age, but the 500 pounds of cheddar aging in a Wisconsin cheese factory do so wonderfully.

For Sale: 500 Pounds of 20-Year-Old Cheddar

Even at $209 a pound, it’s expected to sell out shortly.

BY Luke Fater
Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia examines celery stalks at a produce stall several years after his artichoke war.

In 1930s New York, the Mayor Took on the Mafia by Banning Artichokes

Gangs and mafiosos have a long history with food crime.

BY Mark Hay

Meet the Rocket Scientist Who's Also a Whole Hog Pitmaster

How Aboriginal Hunting and 'Cool Burns' Prevent Australian Wildfires

Blank
The Gastro Obscura Newsletter

Updates from Gastro Obscura, delivered twice a week.

Blank
Blank

Food & More

Place

Off the Rez Cafe

Where else would a linchpin of post-colonial Native American cuisine anchor the menu but a museum?
Place

Chùa Giác Minh

An eatery within a Bay Area Buddhist temple pulls off all your favorite Vietnamese classics without the meat.
Prepared Foods

Hoppin' John

This New Year's luck-bringer has a controversial contemporary taste.
Are you feeling lucky?
Ritual & Medicinal

Twelve Grapes

A New Year's Eve tradition of scarfing down 12 grapes for good luck.
See All Food & Drink

Stories

The Chef Restoring Appalachia's World-Class Food Culture

A coal fortune is fueling the revival of a cuisine it nearly destroyed.
BY Eric J. Wallace
Invasive blue catfish only have one known predator: humans.

Invasive Catfish Are Rewriting Chesapeake Bay Cuisine

An unloved invader has found its way onto menus across the region.
BY Luke Fater
The Japanese presence near Houston was commemorated in postcards.

How a Japanese Family Jumpstarted Rice Farming, Deep in the Heart of Texas

It was eventually stifled by nativism and border anxiety.
BY Isaac Schultz
A row of stone monoliths, or moai, on Ahu Tongariki in Rapa Nui.

Easter Island's Monoliths Made the Crops Grow

By quarrying rock for the statues, the people of Rapa Nui fertilized the soil.
BY Reina Gattuso
Atsuo Sakurai poses with his Arizona Sake equipment in Holbrook, Arizona.

The Elite Sake Brewer on Route 66

In the Arizona desert, Atsuo Sakurai found the freedom to make something great.
BY Abbie Gripman
Border Cave, between South Africa and Swaziland.

Found: The Charred Remains of a 170,000-Year-Old Meal in a South African Cave

It doesn't look like much, but it's a key step in the development of human diets.
BY Isaac Schultz
A Nepalese devotee cuts a melon on the ninth day of Dashain in Nepal.
After Generations of Animal Sacrifice, Nepal Is Butchering Coconuts and Squash

Activists envision a bloodless future for the annual Dashain festival.

BY Josh Nadeau