Food for Thought: Gastro Obscura

Inside the world’s only sourdough library. Photo courtesy of librarian Karl De Smedt.

I have long appreciated the daily emails I get from Atlas Obscura, a website chronicling truly out-of-the-way travel experiences. The other day they reminded me they now have a food section, called Gastro Obscura, and it’s already at 500 posts.

For a first read, check out this description of what may be the world’s most pointless museum, “the world’s only sourdough library” in Belgium. Folks from all over the world send their sourdough starters along with flour for feeding them, which are kept under refrigeration by a proprietor who amusingly is allergic to flour, and fed “every few months”.

Why pointless? Many bakers say it’s nonsense to try and maintain different starters because they ultimately take on the personality of the wild yeasts in the local atmosphere. I do feel there may be persistent differences–my Cheese Board starter behaves slightly differently than my Hamelman, many years after acquisition–but those would be minimized by the infrequent feeding cycles which would cause the starter to gulp down the local air and water out of desperation.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter because the museum is closed to the public. Like they say, Gastro Obscura. Check it out.