Sweden Is Getting a Museum Dedicated to Disgusting Foods
Jell-o salad, mouse wine, Sardinian maggot-infested cheese and even Vegemite rank among the museum's exhibits.
When you travel the world, you take your tastebuds on a journey with you, with trying local delicacies all part of the experience. If you find yourself at Sweden's new museum, however, you might not want to get adventurous with your eating — it's completely dedicated to disgusting foods.
Of course, what one person considers gross, another entire country might slather on toast for breakfast. Yes, the Malmö-based Disgusting Food Museum will feature Vegemite when it opens on October 29. Other items don't include much-loved but highly polarising Australian spreads, but everything within the site's walls is considered food somewhere. Think Sweden's own surstömming, aka fermented herring; cuy, the Peruvian roasted guinea pigs; casu marzu, a maggot-infested cheese from Sardinia; hákarl, the Icelandic dish comprised of well-aged shark; and Thailand's notoriously pungent durian.
In total, 80 foods from around the world will be on display until January 27, with liquorice, jell-o salad, fruit bat and bull's penis among the other exhibits. For an entry fee of 185 Swedish krona (approximately AU$29), visitors will have the opportunity to smell and taste selected items. The museum will also hold 'taste one for the team' sessions for groups of six or more, where you can challenge your friends to the kinds of tastings that you don't get every day.
If you're currently asking yourself the obvious question — not 'what's wrong with Vegemite?', but rather 'what would inspire someone to open this kind of place?' — the Disgusting Food Museum is all about challenging accepted ideas of what's edible and tasty. It recognises that what one person finds delicious, another might find revolting and vice-versa. Speaking to Vox, curator and 'chief disgustologist' Samuel West uses Vegemite as an example, explaining that it initially tastes awful, but you can learn to like it.
Find the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden from October 29. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the museum's website or Facebook page.
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