Anja Barte Telin, Courtesy of the Disgusting Food Museum
Upon arrival at the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden, visitors are equipped with a barf bag, a bingo card, and a challenge. The challenge becomes apparent as soon as you step into the spacious exhibit, where your senses are immediately put to the test. A strong odor, reminiscent of ammonia and moldy cheese, fills the air, while a chalkboard vomit counter keeps track of how many days it has been since a guest last lost their lunch. During my visit, it had been 14 days since the last incident, and I was determined to avoid adding to the count.
The museum’s interior resembles a scientific laboratory, with bright lights illuminating various specimens displayed in jars and under glass cases. Among the 80 examples of the world’s most revolting foods are chunky whipped animal fat, crispy fried crickets, fermented shark meat, and carbonated milk soda. Some of the items seemed familiar, while others were beyond imagination. Once you get past the initial shock, you are encouraged to explore the museum and contemplate what makes a particular food disgusting.
The answer, it turns out, is highly subjective and personal. For some, it may be the ingredients that provoke a visceral reaction. For instance, gomutra, an ayurvedic drink containing urine from a pregnant cow, may hold sacred significance in certain religions but repulse others. Similarly, North American rocky mountain oysters may seem appetizing until you realize you are consuming battered and fried bull testicles.
The method of preparation can also contribute to the revulsion one feels towards a dish. Take, for example, Casu marzu, a pecorino cheese where the wheel is left outdoors for flies to lay eggs inside. The hatched larvae consume the cheese and excrete, resulting in a partially digested soft cheese that is consumed with the squirming maggots, leaving a lasting pungent flavor.
Furthermore, ethical concerns can make certain foods abhorrent to some individuals. In some cultures, baby mice are drowned in rice wine to create an elixir believed to aid in asthma and liver disease. In Japan, ikizukuri involves consuming live seafood, with the fish often still moving as it is eaten. And then there is foie gras, the contentious French delicacy made from the enlarged liver of a duck or goose force-fed through a tube inserted down its throat.
As you navigate through the exhibits, each showcasing either a real sample or a replica of the food, you will find multilingual plaques detailing the dish’s name and its region of origin. Some displays even feature smell jars, offering an olfactory dimension to the experience. I cautiously approached su callu sardu, a Sardinian cheese matured in the stomach of a baby goat that was sacrificed after nursing from its mother.
Redefining our perceptions of what constitutes disgusting food, the Disgusting Food
Visiting the Disgusting Food Museum, one must consider the influence of culture and familiarity in determining what is deemed as repulsive. For instance, while an American may readily identify a Twinkie as a questionable treat due to its unhealthy ingredients, they may find themselves taken aback by kiviak, a traditional dish from western Greenland consisting of a seal carcass stuffed with numerous small arctic birds. It’s intriguing to compare this with the American creation of the turducken – a culinary monstrosity featuring a chicken, duck, and turkey nested within each other, akin to an edible matryoshka doll.
Venturing further into the realm of unusual cuisine, I have personally sampled various exotic dishes during my global travels. From hákarl, the fermented shark of Iceland, to the pungent stinky tofu in Taiwan, and the Filipino delicacy balut, which is a fertilized duck embryo. Feeling worldly and adventurous in my culinary pursuits, I thought I was well-prepared until I encountered the tasting bar at the museum.
At the tasting bar, visitors are invited to try a selection of international peculiarities to check off on their bingo cards. During my visit, the offerings included century eggs, durian fruit, fermented shark, su callu (which left my nose in distress), salty licorice, and an array of crunchy insects. The experience concluded with a fiery hot sauce so intense that participants had to sign a waiver before daring to taste a drop.
Reflecting on my museum visit, I realized that what may be repulsive to one person could be considered a delicacy by another. While I cannot definitively define what makes a food repugnant, I encourage you to fully immerse yourself in the exhibits at The Disgusting Food Museum and form your own opinions.
