Anne Ewbank's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Gastro Obscura
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inventors

America's Greatest Horticulturist Left Behind a Plum Mystery

Frida Kahlo painted him. Thomas Edison admired him. Now Rachel Spaeth is trying to decode him.
April 30, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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neuroscience

This Scientist Explains Complex Concepts With Sushi

Sashimi meets science.
April 26, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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france

'À La Mode' Is a Lonely Survivor of a French Culinary Code

In America, à la Nesselrode and à la Maryland are à la gone.
April 24, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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1920s

Looking Like a Flapper Meant a Diet of Celery and Cigarettes

A new standard of beauty led to today’s weight-loss regimens.
April 20, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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preservation methods

Can Putting a Frog in Milk Keep It Fresh?

Modern science may have an answer to this Russian folk belief.
April 19, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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spam

The Rise and Fall of the Hormel Girls, Who Sold America on SPAM

The Spamettes sang and danced and glamorized canned meat.
April 17, 2018
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discovery

Found: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Coffin in a Wine Cellar

The poet's remains were rediscovered in London earlier this week.
April 13, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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eggs

The Story Behind New York City's New Egg House

If you visit this pop-up, you’ll enter the dreams of Ellis the egg.
April 11, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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tolkien

Why Do Fantasy Novels Have So Much Food?

Writers since Tolkien have conjured magical feasts for readers.
April 10, 2018
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menu monday

The Feminist Lunch That Broke Boundaries 150 Years Ago

For women, dining in public without men was revolutionary.
April 9, 2018
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poison

The Strange History of Royals Testing Food for Poison With Unicorn Horn

It was actually narwhal tusk.
April 5, 2018
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occult

These Fortune-Telling Tea Cups Made Divination Easy

"Many Curious Things I See, When Telling Fortunes In Your Tea."
April 4, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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potatoes

The Art Show That's All Potatoes

It's courtesy of the tuber's biggest hype man.
April 2, 2018
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easter

How This London Pub Got Its Buns Back

Hot cross buns, that is.
March 30, 2018
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disease

How Famine Under the Nazis Revealed the Cause of Celiac Disease

A food shortage helped one doctor prove his theory.
March 29, 2018
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thomas edison

The Hoax That Claimed Thomas Edison Could Turn Dirt Into Food

Newspapers worldwide printed that he'd invented a miraculous machine.
March 28, 2018
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farms

The Quiet Rescue of America’s Forgotten Fruit

One man is responsible for roughly half of the country's stone fruit collection.
March 27, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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medicine

The Long, Strange History of Medicinal Turpentine

Drinking it was thought to cure nearly everything. (But you shouldn't try it.)
March 26, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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vegetables

The Grocery Stocker Who Makes Hypnotic Vegetable Designs

Scallions, radishes, and endives form artistic works.
March 22, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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cooking

14 Unusual Cookbooks That Were Still Fit to Print

The collections of Gastro Obscura readers feature cannibalism, bugs, and Dracula.
March 20, 2018
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journalism

Remembering When 'The New York Times' Explained Pizza

No "pizzas" here, only "pizze."
March 19, 2018
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dinner party

Alfred Hitchcock’s Contentious Relationship With Dinner Parties

Sometimes the food was all blue.
March 15, 2018
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physics

When Stephen Hawking Threw a Cocktail Party for Time Travelers

No one showed up.
March 14, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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beef

The Mystery of New England's Gray Corned Beef

The specialty is usually pink, but it looks different around Boston.
March 14, 2018