Explore a Database of 1,000 Unique Foods

If you visit the Gastro Obscura homepage today, you’ll see something new: a shiny, new link to our database of unique food and drink. We’re talking everything from North Carolina’s green-gilled oysters to a Bolivian volcanic-rock soup and a liqueur that only two silent monks know how to make.

If you’ve never perused the database before, I encourage you to spend some time exploring it!

If you’re a regular Gastro Obscura reader, you may recognize some of these foods. These short articles were an integral part of Gastro Obscura’s launch in 2017, and we’ve shared them on social media and in past newsletters.

So what exactly is new here?

Back in the day, we imagined this foods database working like Atlas Obscura’s map of obscure and unusual places. That meant readers and travelers like you would be able to add foods to the database, and, together, we’d create the definitive guide to curious and unusual food and drink. 

The problem was that writing a definitive account of a food or drink required a lot of research, which wasn’t fun or achievable for most readers. We wrote entries ourselves, but eventually we discontinued the foods database and instead encouraged everyone to explore and add to Gastro Obscura’s guide to places to eat and drink.

Still, we always felt the foods database was something special on the internet, so we’ve brought it back with a new approach. Starting this month, our writers from around the world will add new foods and drinks to the database, with each short article featuring original reporting and expert recommendations.

Until then, please enjoy this rundown of the most popular foods we’ve written about over the past four years!

This list is adapted from the February 5, 2022, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here.