This book is just an absolute delight, pure and simple. No matter what page one flips to at random, no matter what corner of the world a reader suddenly finds themself transported to, they’ll come across either a piece of food history, regional culinary traditions, a unique eatery, or some combination of these, and no matter what it is it will be guaranteed to be absolutely fascinating, if not a new item for someone’s to-see (or to-eat) list.

As an avid fan of Atlas Obscura, I could not wait to read this book! I was not disappointed. The pictures and the writing share an excitement and sense of adventure about what people from different cultures and geographic locations love to eat. Almost immediately, I knew several people to whom I would gifting this book. It's that good. What could be more enticing for the COVID- 19 armchair traveler than to have a glimpse into the ways people from other places around the world and from different cultures celebrate food? I now know a way to turn the dreaded insect, the stinkbug, into a culinary treat. I can guarantee that I won't eat them, but I now have something enlightened and erudite to say about the insects - something that likely no one will believe.

I also now have, thanks to Gastro Obscura, many new places on my bucket list to visit!

Wonderful book full of beautiful images and fascinating facts about the two best things in the world - food and drink! Can't wait to buy this as a gift.

Fascinating book of food from around the world, food customs, celebrations and even a few recipes.
Want to know about unicorn horn poison detectors? How about a recipe for Finnish mustard? And let's not forget about stuffed camel spleen.
Interesting facts presented in a very readable format with lots of photo illustrations.

Learning about myths and where things originated was a thrill in page after page. This is a great book for any "foodie" or culinary person. The organization by area was also helpful in flipping to something I was curious about. Easily shared knowledge and fun facts to share with friends as well. Enjoyable and fun to read.

I thought this would be a cookbook of obscurities. Sometimes it is (you will find, for example, a recipe for the South African milk tart), but it is also more.

Gastro Obscura is a vast collection of strange food products, like New Zealand's Gunpowder Rum, or a Canadian soap-flavoured gum called Thrills. But it also contains a diversity of food customs and tastes: The Eastern European origins of Montreal Steak Spice are explained in colourful detail, and the whole is peppered with fascinating stories and anecdotes, including a Canadian maple syrup heist, and a primer on the blossoming mycology scene in Oregon.

I liked learning how food is used in Hollywood post-production—in Titanic, the sound of Rose’s ice-covered hair breaking, as she clings to her life-saving plank, is achieved with frozen lettuce—and discovering Fool’s Gold, a sandwich that stole Elvis’s heart (it’s composed of a whole jar of peanut butter, a jar of blueberry jam, and a pound of bacon in hollowed-out bread, and costs $49.95).

Even casual foodies will enjoy this volume, which makes an interesting companion to the standard Atlas Obscura. But everyday students of people will find all kinds of joy here, too, particularly those who can’t travel right now and thirst for the weird wonder being lost in a new place affords. The odd person may even find a passion, whether it’s mushrooms, or where to attend world’s only hot pepper school.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Workman Publishing for an advance glimpse of this nifty volume!

Gastro Obscura is a fantastic compilation of past and present edible items spanning the globe. It is organized by country and region and offers history and description of delicacy, curative, and items that have fostered local economies. It is a visit into a foodstuff’s history, enterprise and possibly why it has survived from the historic past to today. A whomping 400+ pages this door stopper of a book is best read in small doses for prolonged periods of time because readers will fall down several rabbit holes. A wonderful compliment to a classroom, a food lover’s library or a novice’s coffee table. The layout is fun, fresh and lively and the photography is especially beautiful during this moment when real time travel is prohibitive. I found myself seeking out several items during reading so it’s highly influential and if Gastro Obscura was a catalog or shop I would be a card carrying member because it offers consumers a rich opportunity to expand their knowledge and taste at the very same time.

This book was a magnificently fascinating foray into the world of obscure eats, many of which take a lot of adjusting to in terms of wrapping your head around the mechanics of them! I think the best thing about a book like this is just how much you can learn- there were so many things in this book that I had no idea about, and this is coming from someone who had read on the topic of strange and wonderful foods before. The amount of research and knowledge that a book like this necessitates is mind-boggling, and I am so appreciative that the writers have made the choice to share this with us.

It is no juvenile book, and for people who don't usually approach factual books as novels to be read in one hit, it makes itself very available for perusal at your leisure. However, I simply could not put it down- I loved every minute of it and found myself just wanting to know more and more about the topics. The sections are also easily navigable and make it simple to find specifics if you're looking- and illustrations are provided for many of the foods, which makes it so much easier to understand precisely how they work. This book also has the incredible capacity to make you feel as though you are genuinely a part of what you're reading, sparking almost a nostalgia about the things you read about. It was simply incredible.

For those of us among us who have a burning curiosity, for the foodies, and for those with just a fascination about the world, this book is perfect. I've not yet read the first book, but after this will be hunting it down- if not just to learn more about this bizarre and wonderful world we live in!

I love all the Obscura books! The desire to travel and eat go hand in hand for me. Now I can use more than Yelp to dazzle my friends and family with finding the most obscure food to try when on vacation! I also enjoy the images as they depict past and present. There are fun facts and thoughtful topics to keep one learning about the food world around them or beyond. Each continent is visited. I was given an ARC for my review, so I can't say how heavy or what size this book will be when printed. If the cover shared is what is used, it's not "pretty" and if white will become dirty with continual use that I see this book getting. It's a great reference, one people should definitely use before going on any overseas trip! #NetGalley

Enjoyable armchair tourism, focused on unusual, potentially inedible, or interesting food around the world. As a fan of the online version of this feature, it was enjoyable to page through an entire book of them -- there were some foods best appreciated with this sort of distance!

As travel restrictions continue due to COVID-19, I can see this title appealing to adventurers who are tied to home for the time being.

This is probably one of the best travel books I have ever encountered. Local restaurants or authentic cuisine are some of the most treasured experiences I have had in the places I have traveled, and this book is a bountiful resource for one-of-a-kind gastronomic experiences. One of the things that sets this book apart from other gastronomic travel books, is that each entry comes with a section on "How to try it", which allows travelers to make concrete plans for their travels.
As its companion, Atlas Obscura, it points travelers to gems which might be missed otherwise had they not been covered in this book. Gastro Obscura will improve the culinary experiences of every traveler, and it will point readers into less obvious treasures.

Really fun read with lots of very cool and interesting facts about food around the world. I'm Brazilian-Austrian, and I found those sections to be accurate, while also introducing me to some new locations and history I wasn't previously aware of. It was organized clearly and the pages are a lovely combo of stunning photos and interesting content. This title definitely made me yearn to travel and explore, so I hope 2021 will be the year I can bring that to fruition and get my own copy of this book!

Enjoyable. Readable and well designed. I found myself enjoying tearing through the book, finding trivia and stories I’d never heard. Great for a food lover.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I do not have the capabilities to read it in protected pdf. Thank you.

This is a trip around the world with photos and descriptions of unique foods, categorized by location. It is an enjoyable and educational read.

If you are interested in the foods and cultures of the world, you will enjoy this book.

A fun collection, great to browse rather than read through. Will definitely be popular once travel opens up again! Great balance of obscure facts, stories, and information for real foodies.

I was so excited to get an early copy of Gastro Obscura to review, and can't wait to buy it in September and spend hours perusing it, planning food vacations and recipes to try, and calling out to my kids, "Hey, listen to this crazy fact!." This over 400 page volume is a mix of history, food tourism, tales of the bizarre, and cultural delights, and the articles are readable and fascinating. If you're familiar with Atlas Obscura, this is from the same people and follows a similar format, organized by region of the world (with a huge section on the United States) and in encyclopedic articles.

Within the first 100 pages or so, I learned what a penny lick is and how it contributed to the spread of tuberculosis, that alcohol was once used as an energy drink for runners, that you can get oysters from a vending machine or preserve milk by putting a live frog in it (but not recommended), and that Danes attack their single friends with spices on their birthdays if they've been unmarried "too long."

I now want to try black tahini, t'tu lavash, chimney cake, deep fried lemon leaves, and custard filled pumpkin. I want to visit the world's largest floating restaurant (Jumbo Kingdom in Hong Kong), experience fantasy dining in Japan, and visit ancient Persian ice houses. And I've only read a handful of articles from this treasure of a book!

Similar to its predecessor, this book focused on food around the world. The information and facts about the food were interesting to read and will have you craving these classic foods. The sorting by region was a nice touch and helped find different things to look for when travelling. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves food or liked Atlas Obscura.

I can't give this book enough stars. I love, love, love this book! I thought Atlas Obscura and its sublime collection of travel destination oddities couldn't be beat but darned if this companion doesn't give it a run for its money. Turns out weird FOOD may be more than a match for weird PLACES. I'm bummed that this book's release was pushed out to 2021 because I would have loved a copy this year. I guess one more thing to look forward to in a (hopefully) post-pandemic world,

*This book was received as an advanced reader's copy from NetGalley.

This might just be one of my favorite 'food' books I've read in awhile. I'm always looking for innovative or 'new to me' foods or cuisines, and this book touched on so many that my poor Amazon wish-list is now chock full of goodies I'd like to try. But moreso than being just a grocery list helper, this book is a great way to view different customs, foods, and other edible innovations around the world, and helps introduce the reader to things they might never have known existed otherwise.

Broken into world regions like Europe, Canada, Africa, etc. (and then further broken into sub-regions within that), each section highlights food festivals, events, items, specialized produce, and much more. To tag along with each item, there is usually a picture or two and also a note on where to obtain the item if possible. Along the way, certain food history or further depth into customs surrounding a particular item or foodstuff around the world are inter-weaved. Most are done in summaries, with few items being more than a page long.

The writing is engaging, fun, and interesting; I can truthfully say there was no skimming and I read every word because I was so intrigued by it. And where some reference books can be dry and boring, this one did not have that tone at all. It was a delight to read through a section at a time, and while I can't say this is a 'sit down and read all at once' type of book, I did return to it night after night to continue the food journey. Among some of my favorite parts were the 'rolling in the grits' (not an Adele song as you might expect), Spicebush (I have two planted in my yard!), Spit-roasted cake, and well, there's too many and my bucket list has really increased as a result.

Really a wonderful book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes travel, food, or learning about other cultures. I definitely plan on buying a physical copy of this one as a permanent addition to the home library.

Review by M. Reynard 2020