The Disgusting Food Museum: It May Taste Better Than It Looks

Museums are ideal for preserving history and critical aspects of culture, like food. A food museum such as Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum preserves the best and worst dishes of all time, proving that one’s delicacies may be another’s worst meal.

The stinky tofu, fermented herring, and maggot-infested cheese offend noses and raise eyebrows at Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum. The Malmö-based attraction was opened in November 2018 to celebrate weird dishes and introduce visitors to unfamiliar foods.

Unusual meals at the museum include Peru’s aphrodisiac bull penis and roasted guinea pigs, which some may find less tasty. The museum helps you explore the food world and challenge your notions of edibility and inedibility.

Exhibition experiences are mostly sensory, allowing you to admire, smell, touch, and even try some of the cuisines on display. The museum makes regular changes to the foods on display to keep things interesting for the first time and subsequent visitors.

Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum has 80 exhibits showcasing cuisines widely recognized as disgusting based on taste, ingredient makeup, and smell. Major attractions include Casu marzu, Surströmming, Hákarl, and Durian.

The museum also showcases special beverages like kumis and China’s baby mice wine, which infuses baby mice and rice wine. It also features disgusting US staples like Jell-O salad and root beer, eliciting mixed reactions in Scandinavia.

Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum’s founder Samuel West was inspired to establish the museum after coming across an article on meat consumption and its environmental effects.

West searched for alternative protein sources and came across staples like guinea pigs and tarantulas, prompting him to explore what most people find disgusting.