Author: Ms. R.

Situated on a small hill that leads up to Mt Faber, the abandoned Keppel Hill Reservoir serves as a hidden sanctuary for thrill-seekers and urban explorers. Although its origins are unknown, it dates back more than a century, yet was absent from official maps for decades until it came to the attention of the National Heritage Board and local media in 2014. Roughly one-third the size of an Olympic swimming pool, the enclosed body of water once served the needs of ……

Read More

This month, Gastro Obscura is sharing the recipes and stories behind amazing holiday dishes and drinks in an ongoing series, Home-Cooked Holidays. Winter’s the time for hot toddies and eggnog, or any cocktail that combines fistfuls of spices with warm sweetness. But when it comes to sweetness, spice, and sheer boozy firepower, boilo has them all beat. You can be forgiven for not knowing about boilo. Outside of Pennsylvania, this warm drink, sipped by the shot, is rarely seen,……

Read More

This month, Gastro Obscura is sharing the recipes and stories behind amazing holiday dishes and drinks in an ongoing series, Home-Cooked Holidays. In the winter of 1984, Timothy Tangherlini worked on a dairy farm on the Danish island of Funen. One day, while brushing cattle in the barn, he spotted a tiny man in a hat sitting on the back of one of the cows. When Tangherlini tried to speak to the stranger, the little man jumped out the……

Read More

The trail networks crisscrossing El Malpais National Monument are often marked with lava cairns, rocky reminders of the arid New Mexican park’s previously volcanic life. Below the monument’s striking surface are numerous corridors—close to 500 lava tubes, formed when searing channels of liquid rock made trails through the land. Recently, one of those tubes gave up a secret, tucked away in ice nearly 50 feet underground, a mile and a half above sea level. The mystery was how ancestral……

Read More

Constructed between 1905 and 1907, this amazing twin swing bridge links the harbor area of Wilhelmshaven, Germany with the popular South Beach. It’s not the only route to the thin strip of land where South Beach is located, but it’s seen as the most direct and picturesque. South Beach is unique in Germany as it is the country’s only south-facing beach. The bridge, narrow by modern standards, operates a light controlled alternating one-way traffic system across its 522-foot span. This……

Read More

If you bike along the scenic, border-crossing Vennbahn, or Fen Railway, you’ll pass through a section that’s in Belgium, but where Germany is visible to your left and right—an unusual legacy of the days when Europe’s borders were more contentious and fluid.  Constructed by the Prussian State Railway around 1889, the Vennbahn traversed land which, on German unification about 40 years earlier, had become German territory. After WWI, though, the many border changes mandated by the Treaty of Versailles handed the……

Read More

The Temple of Minerva in the town of Assisi, in Umbria, appears to be a perfectly preserved example of a Roman temple from the outside, but inside is home to a Catholic church. The Roman building was christened during the 1st-century BCE, probably as part of the town’s forum. The structure is a typical Roman temple with six tall Corinthians columns supporting the architrave in the façade. The temple was erroneously attributed to Minerva because of a female statue……

Read More

Hidden among the bustling streets of central Tokyo, a dimly lit porch leads to a venue that feels a world away from the Korean barbecues and neon-lit karaokes that draw night-time crowds to the Ōkubo neighborhood. Through the door, which is often left open, is a corridor lined with photographs and a softly lit room. As it draws nearer, so too do the sounds of ancient chants sung to a hypnotic beat and the smell of homemade stew. The……

Read More

Even within Japan, the food, culture, and history of the Ainu—an Indigenous people native to the country’s northernmost main island, Hokkaido, as well as Russia’s Sakhalin and Kuril Islands—is not well known. But at Harukor, a small izakaya in Tokyo, diners can order ohaw (a delicate soup of wild vegetables and salmon that was once an Ainu staple), a crisp and light tempura made from the wild lily turep, and other dishes that combine Indigenous and Japanese influences. Opened in 2011 by Teruyo Usa, Harukor is both……

Read More