Author: Ms. R.

There are some food pairings that just seem meant to be. Peanut butter and jelly. Rice and beans. Brains and eggs. Of course, nowadays, you won’t see brains and eggs on a menu too often, but before concern over the “Mad Cow” outbreak of the early 2000s and other factors shifted our preferences, brain and eggs was a popular breakfast pairing in the American South, up until as recently as the mid-1900s. It was also a common combination in……

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The Pune Head Post Office, or the Pune GPO (General Post Office) as it is popularly known, is housed in a grand 19th-century stone building constructed during the British era. The architectural style pays tribute to the works of the 16th-century Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who inspired several institutional buildings during Victorian times. A bright red letterbox stands on the premises of the post office complex, next to the porch. Its top is adorned with the design of……

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In 1919, the people of Gandesa, the tiny Catalonian capital city of the Terra Alta region in Spain, combined their wealth and their harvests to build a wine cathedral. It took 48 families only eleven months—a modern-day miracle—to construct a winery that any passing pilgrim would confuse for a church. Perhaps it was a way for them to entice extra blessings on the grapes that fermented in the concrete tanks inside. Or maybe cathedrals were on the mind of……

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Nestled in an inconspicuous corner of the Museumsinsel, a funny little fountain shaped like a flatfish spurts out a steady stream of water, flanked by a pair of staircases leading up to the Eiserne Bridge. This “Buttbrunnen,” or the “flounder fountain”—pleasantly alliterative in both German and English—was designed by local sculptor Robert Schirmer and installed here in 1916 as a whimsical homage to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, who envisioned the Neues Museum. He nicknamed himself “Butt” within his……

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Compared to many of the world’s major cities, the metropolis of San Francisco is relatively young, dating back only a few centuries. In 1906, a devastating earthquake and ensuing fires decimated much of the landscape. There isn’t much left today that harkens back to the early burgeoning days of the city’s establishment.      Situated on the corner of Stockton and Geary Streets, kitty-corner to the city’s Union Square, stands the Neiman Marcus department store. Even this Dallas-based fashion……

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Madeline Kripke’s first dictionary was a copy of Webster’s Collegiate that her parents gave her when she was a fifth grader in Omaha in the early 1950s. By the time of her death in 2020, at age 76, she had amassed a collection of dictionaries that occupied every flat surface of her two-bedroom Manhattan apartment—and overflowed into several warehouse spaces. Many believe that this chaotic, personal library is the world’s largest compendium of words and their usage. “We don’t……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a mysterious sinkhole in Arizona that has befuddled an exclusive group of divers who’ve gotten a glimpse of a strange world at its sandy bottom. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some……

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THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEMBER 11, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. Let me ask you a question. What pops into your mind, when you envision a can of food? For some of us, it’s a simple can of cream of mushroom soup. For others, the meal of the moment is an expensive tin of fish imported from Portugal. Perhaps you get a sense of nostalgia seeing tinned pumpkin pureé,……

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Toledo, the imperial city, as it is also known all over Spain, is a city rich in history and traditions, but also abundant in legends and episodes based on what has been passed on for generations. One of the most popular legends has to do with this humble-looking well. The well was once part of the patio of the house of a well-known Jewish family from Toledo and it witnessed a story of impossible love. As the story goes,……

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Set near the North Sea in East Yorkshire, the Priory Church of St. Mary, Bridlington has been a staple in this village since the 11th century. It is among the many monasteries in England suppressed by Henry VIII, however, the church itself was saved for use as the parish church. The Priory was founded in 1086 by Walter de Gant, and during medieval times, became one of the largest and richest monasteries of the Augustinian order. This structure, still……

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