russellnelson's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Places visited in Oakland, California
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Pacific Razor Clams
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Meats & Animal Products

Pacific Razor Clams

It takes patience and skill to harvest these delicious bivalves.
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Gunpowder Rum
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Drinks

Gunpowder Rum

A spirit that toasts a time when proofing your liquor meant setting it aflame.
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Clairin
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Drinks

Clairin

Small Haitian distilleries are producing some of the purest rum in the world.
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Luxardo Maraschino Cherries
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Ingredients & Condiments

Luxardo Maraschino Cherries

Real maraschinos were born more than a century ago in an Italian distillery.
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Postum
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Drinks

Postum

This wheat-based coffee alternative has a cult following.
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Pu'er
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Drinks

Pu'er

Devoted fans pay thousands for bricks of this fermented tea.
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Causa
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Prepared Foods

Causa

Peru's strikingly beautiful mashed potato casserole.
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Cherimoya
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Fruits & Vegetables

Cherimoya

Growing this sweet, tropical fruit sometimes requires careful hand-pollination with a paint brush.
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XO Sauce
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Ingredients & Condiments

XO Sauce

This savory seafood condiment is named after the finest cognacs.
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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
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Prepared Foods

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Historians debate whether this dish actually originated with Italian sex workers.
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Mozartkugel
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Sweets

Mozartkugel

Like the famed composer himself, this Mozart-homage bonbon originated in Salzburg, Austria.
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The Christmas Pickle
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The Christmas Pickle

The holiday tradition of hiding an ornamental veggie.
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Butter Molds
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Butter Molds

These intricate stamps are relics from a time when dairy farmers beautifully branded their products.
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Feast of the Seven Fishes
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Feast of the Seven Fishes

For Italian-Americans, Christmas Eve is all about the seafood.
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Ice Wine
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Drinks

Ice Wine

Pressed from frozen grapes, this prized wine was a sweet accident.
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Black Tot Rum
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Drinks

Black Tot Rum

The rare remaining bottles of the British Navy's rum rations can be yours for $1,000 each.
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Dole Whip
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Sweets

Dole Whip

This pineapple soft serve has a cult following at Disney theme parks.
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Pueblo Bread
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Prepared Foods

Pueblo Bread

Baked in traditional adobe hornos, this bread is a staple of the American Southwest's Native Pueblo people.
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Staffordshire Oatcakes
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Prepared Foods

Staffordshire Oatcakes

The portable breakfast food might've originated with British soldiers returning from India.
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Tupelo Honey
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Ingredients & Condiments

Tupelo Honey

Beekeepers in the United States' southeastern swamplands are fighting to preserve this smooth, sweet delicacy.
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Pure Kona Coffee
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Drinks

Pure Kona Coffee

Grown only on the volcanic soil of Hawaiʻi’s Big Island, this coffee is known for its subtle, rich flavor and hordes of unscrupulous imitators.
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Oaxacan Mole Blanco
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Ingredients & Condiments

Oaxacan Mole Blanco

The fairest and rarest of them all.
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Hoppin' John
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Prepared Foods

Hoppin' John

This New Year's luck-bringer has a controversial contemporary taste.
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Chitlins
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Prepared Foods

Chitlins

These entrails identified safe venues for Black musicians during the Jim Crow era.
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