The Disgusting Food Museum, is not on a must visit list of people, who want to have a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience. Nonetheless, it manages to redefine everything a visitor ever imagined (and smelled) about a meal. The place is not for……. Oh, and if your stomach is sensitive, you might want to take some caution before entering the building.
A meal that exceeds any expectation
Currently running in both Malmo, Sweden and Los Angeles, the exhibition showcases 80 foods from around the world. However, not all of them look mouthwatering for curious visitors. Some of the main ‘’stars’’ are: a Peruvian frog smoothie, Icelandic fermented shark meat and Swedish putrid sea herring. Let’s not forget about Mouse Wine; China’s baby mice drowned and cooked in rice wine.
Although it’s highly debatable, the food that often steals the show is called Su Callu Sardu. Originated in Sardinia, this cheese is made by hanging the stomach of a slaughtered baby goat, that’s filled with its mother’s milk. Depending on how much you eat it, the aftertaste can last for two days.
Cuy, or roasted guinea pig, is one of Peru’s most famous dishes. The indigenous animal has been a staple in the Andean diet for about 5,000 years.
Bull penis is said to be an aphrodisiac. Anja Barte Telin / The Disgusting Food Museum
Baby-mice wine. It’s made by infusing rice wine with dead baby mice and is considered a health tonic in China.
In Mongolia, a pickled sheep’s eye in tomato juice is known to some as a fail-safe hangover cure.
The century egg dates back to China’s Ming dynasty — it is made by soaking duck, chicken, or quail’s eggs in strong black tea, lime, salt, and freshly burned wood ashes for several weeks or even months.
Garum is an ancient Roman sauce made from fermented fish guts.
Scottish haggis is a savory pudding made by stuffing a sheep’s stomach with offal, onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices.
Kiviak might just be the strangest meal in the world. Kiviak, which is consumed in the Arctic, is made by gutting a seal and filling its body with 300-500 tiny auk birds, then sewing it back up. The seal sack is then left to ferment for about 18 months to preserve and tenderize the bird meat within. The dish has to be eaten outside because the smell is so pungent. It reportedly tastes like a cross between licorice and a very strong cheese.
Menudo is a Mexican soup made of the boiled stomach lining of cattle and sheep. It’s rubbery in texture and tastes slightly gamey, according to the museum.
Casu Marzu, a Sardinian specialty, is made by cutting the rind off of sheep-milk cheese and allowing maggots to nibble and soften the center — resulting in a much softer, stronger product. It’s imperative to chew the maggots to death before swallowing, to avoid health complications down the line. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Casu Marzu is illegal in the European Union.
Kale Pache is a soup made from the head and hooves of a sheep or cow. It is traditional in the Caucasus (where it is known as khash) and some Middle Eastern countries.
Mopane worms are considered a delicacy in their native Zimbabwe. The worms are actually caterpillars, and are a species of emperor moth.
Redefining the term ‘’disgust’’
The concept was created in Sweden, by Dr. Samuel West; a psychologist also known as ‘Dr. Failure.’ Apparently, the Disgusting Food Museum isn’t the first unique idea he came up with; his previous exhibit, called the Museum of Failure, was just as successful.
As Dr. West explains, the whole concept teaches an important lesson: we should stop being so judgmental with the world around us, because everything is personal and debatable. What may seem disgusting to some, is delicious for others, which is why you may find American root beer right next to the frog smoothie.
The Museum of Disgusting Foods can be visited in Malmo, Sweden and Los Angeles, during this holiday season for anyone, who is looking for a truly unique culinary experience.