At the "Disgusting Food Museum", how many times do you throw up?

The entrance fee is a sick bag, you have to sign a disclaimer before tasting, and you reach a new "achievement" with every item you eat. What kind of food museum is this?

The Disgusting Food Museum is located in the southern Swedish city of Malmo.Yes, as the name suggests, it offers some "delicious" food that defies common perception.

The entrance to the museum

01 The sixth emotion: disgust

The Disgust Museum is an interactive experience where 80 of the world's most infamous foods are displayed.You can first visit the exhibition area to learn about the stories and cultures behind the food, and then go to the experience area to taste and start a tongue adventure.

The feeling of disgust and disgust is actually an evolutionary self-protection.As one of the six basic human emotions, disgust helps us avoid risks of disease and food safety in daily life.However, there is no absolute standard for disgust, and it is also shaped by culture and regional traditions.The world is so big that food that is delicious for one person may be disgusting for another.

The six basic emotional expressions

"Cultural differences tend to separate us and create new barriers, but food can also reconnect us.Sharing food is the best way to turn strangers into friends."

Indeed, food is much more than just eating and drinking.Exotic foods from exotic cultures have always fascinated us. It is based on such an innovative idea that the organizers of the Disgusting Food Museum open the door and invite everyone to explore the world of food and challenge everyone's definition of "eatable" and "unedible". So here, no one should complain about anyone's stinky sufu or disdain anyone's stinky cheese. The important thing is to understand, observe and experience, even if the whole process makes people "hideous"...

02 A's honey, B's arsenic

As the mirror image of the story, I'm curious about how foreigners understand Chinese food, so I first looked for the parts I'm relatively familiar with in the museum: "Century Egg", "Stinky Tofu", "Three-Whip Alcoholic Drink", "Maodan"......

A good preserved egg was translated into "Century Egg", which sounds like a ferocious devil holding a black, sticky thing in his palm. It's no wonder why it's daunting. For tofu, Europeans are not really strange, but not familiar. At this moment, it's crowned with the word "stinky", which naturally makes people feel a sense of awe; "Three-Whip Alcoholic Drink" doesn't need to be said. The raw materials alone can make people grin. The most interesting thing is that the explanation is also very seriously written: "Due to the strong smell, it is not suitable for mixing any kind of cocktail." Of course, as the saying goes, there is no bad food, only improper treatment. Measured by the European drinking thinking, this wine is very difficult to be normal.

Stinky Tofu, Preserved Egg and Three-Whip Alcoholic Drink

After seeing several introductions to Chinese food, I felt a little calmer.Maybe the food itself is not necessarily how terrible it is. It's just the distortion of translation and the cultural barrier that makes them appear very powerful. But this highlights the significance of the museum, which is to deepen understanding through communication.

03 Grinning and pondering

As the host country Sweden's representative of disgusting food, the infamous canned fermented herring covered a wall, and a fan was placed next to it, which is said to be allowed to eat only in an outdoor ventilated environment;

The wall of canned herring

Even under a glass hood and spotlights, the white maggots on Casu marzu were moving all the time. This maggoty cheese from Sardinia is so famous that almost everyone stood in front of it and stuck their toes in curiosity and kept giggle;

Hakarl is an aged shark meat from Iceland, the rich oil brings about its unique flavor and provides an important source of energy for the local people;

And there are roasted guinea pigs from Peru, which are carefully "dressed" by the local people and held a grand food festival every year...

Roast guinea pig

As you visit, you will find that most of the "disgusting" food is actually related to the living environment and cultural traditions of the local people. It is obvious that each food does not exist in isolation, but silently tells the story of the people in a certain area and their relationship with a specific living environment.

In addition, people's attitudes towards a certain food are not static, but fluid.The lobster is a typical example. As early as the 17th century, European colonists arriving in America found lobsters so cheap that they initially used them as bait for fishing or gave them to the poor, slaves and prisoners. The food was so cheap that Massachusetts even passed a law prohibiting prisoners from being served lobsters more than twice a week. However, today lobsters are a luxury food and are served on a fancy table.

The museum doesn't just want to satisfy people's curiosity, but also encourages people to think about the past, present and future we live in. So artificial meat, non-GMO milk, snacks with a lot of added sugar and many cases about food safety are also on display. How to avoid potential risks, how to eliminate hunger, and how to lead a better life are all realistic problems that need to be thought about and solved.

04 Finally, the tasting area

In the tasting area, I eat several types of insects in a row.The crispy sound makes me feel like Pumbaa and Timon in a flash, and I want to shout "Hakuna Matata" after each one.

It's safe to say that each of the testers is part of the "atmosphere group".Droppers, tweezers, water, milk for the spices...Watching them sit solemnly and meticulously, it's easy to imagine being in a large biochemical laboratory.What's more interesting is their description of each food.

"Tree ant eggs are crispy and taste like cheese, but have a popcorn texture."

"Bedbugs have a rotten almond taste."

"Eating old shark is like chewing a mattress full of urine."

"Salted licorice tastes like someone has sandpapered your tongue and then poured salt on it."

"This stinky English cheese is like a rugby club changing room."

I wasn't sick yet, but after hearing their descriptions, I immediately felt my senses and imagination fly, and I couldn't get out.

"As a taster, did you eat all of these?"

"Yes, I was already dizzy with heat when my colleague fed the last chilli sauce into my mouth."Faced with six different levels of chilli sauce in front of them, the taster seriously recalled. "Does that include those fried bugs and spiders?"

"Of course."

The Croatian man next to me refuses to try the Thai durian because it smells too bad, like garlic.I have a very vivid memory of a Swedish bread spread that tastes too much like yeast.

The richness of culture is revealed bit by bit in this small museum...

The world is a big place and we can unlock a richer landscape of knowledge by "tasting".