The Disgusting Food Museum: One Man’s Yuck Is Another Man’s Yum
Advertisement
Fermented herring, stinky tofu and maggot-infested cheese have more in common than an ability to raise eyebrows and offend noses. They’re delicacies on exhibit at Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum, a Malmö-based attraction that celebrates oft-maligned fare.
The Disgusting Food Museum opened in November 2018 as a way to teach visitors about unfamiliar foods across cultures. Some of the more unusual dishes, from Peru’s roasted guinea pig to the aphrodisiac bull penis, may sound a bit unappetizing. But the museum hopes visitors will “explore the world of food and challenge their notions of what is and what isn’t edible,” according to its website. Exhibit experiences are nothing if not sensory; visitors can admire, touch, smell and even taste the museum’s cuisine, with a lineup of regular and rotating exhibits to keep things interesting.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The museum boasts 80 exhibits showcasing cuisine typically categorized as “disgusting” for its taste, smell or ingredient makeup. Some of the most famous Disgusting Food Museum exhibits include:
Cultural bites aren’t the only cuisine you’ll find at the Disgusting Food Museum. Drinks, including China’s baby mice wine, made by infusing rice wine with baby mice, and kumis, a beverage found across Russia and Central Asia concocted using fermented (and therefore slightly alcoholic) mare’s milk.
While these bites and brews may be foreign to Americans, the U.S. is hardly spared when it comes to disgusting foods. The museum has U.S. staples like root beer and Jell-O salad on display. Sure, it may not raise eyebrows on U.S. soil, but root beer elicits visceral reactions across Scandinavia, according to museum founder Dr. Samuel West in a CNN interview.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Some museums highlight the universally beautiful elements of a culture — Sweden’s neighbor, Denmark, recently unveiled its Happiness Museum, for example — but others, like the Disgusting Food Museum, focus on the more obscure aspects of a culture. And they need a dedicated aggregator of said obscure subject to get the museum off the ground. That’s where West comes into play. As a psychologist by day, museum curator by night, and former founder of the Museum of Failure, West is perfect for the job.
West discovered his Disgusting Food Museum inspiration after reading an article about meat consumption and how it affects the environment. He researched alternative protein sources from around the world and stumbled upon staples like tarantulas and guinea pigs — two sources many westerners would turn down swiftly. “What we find disgusting has to be learned,” West told CNN. “It’s purely cultural.”
Of all the questionable dishes West has encountered, his “most disgusting food eaten” remains duck fetus cooked in its egg, called balut. He sampled this bite in the Philippines, according to the museum website.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Get the best of HowStuffWorks by email!
Keep up to date on: Latest Buzz · Stuff Shows & Podcasts · Tours · Weird & Wacky
Copyright © 2020 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace Holdings, LLC, a System1 Company
Privacy Choices
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.
The Disgusting Food Museum: One Man’s Yuck Is Another Man’s Yum
Research & References of The Disgusting Food Museum: One Man’s Yuck Is Another Man’s Yum|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source
0 Comments