STOCKHOLM – What might be revolting to you is delicious to others. That’s what Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum has been trying to explain to us since 2018 by displaying delicacies like Chinese bull penis and Peruvian frog smoothies.
After turning our stomachs with dozens of disturbing dishes, the Malmo-based museum is now launching a three-month exhibition dedicated to the world’s most disgusting kinds of alcohol.
South Korean poo wine, Icelandic sheep-dung-smoked whale testicle beer and 55% ales served in taxidermied squirrel are among the nauseating booze joining revolting world foods from September onwards.
“Some of the exhibited alcohols showcase different types of home-made alcohols going back thousands of years, while others are experimental, made by local brewers,” says Andreas Ahrens, Museum Director at the Disgusting Food Museum.
Moving on from the temporary alcohol exhibition, you’ll be able to sniff the world’s smelliest cheese at the dairy section, as well as Sweden’s famously stinky fish dish, surstromming.
Then it’s off to see bull penis from China, frog smoothies from Peru and Scotland’s infamous boiled entrails in sheep’s stomach, haggis.
“Disgust is cultural. We like the foods we have grown up with,” Ahrens has previously explained. “Disgust is highly individual. The thought of eating a spider makes some people hungry but makes others want to vomit.”
Ahrens’ favourite exhibit? Casa Marzu, a fly larvae-infested cheese, because diners have to cover their eyes to avoid the jumping maggots.
Many of the exhibits feature real food, some of which brave visitors are allowed to taste.
In exploring the idea of why certain foods are considered disgusting, curator Samuel West hopes people will be more open to other, more sustainable forms of food, such as insects or lab-grown meat.
“Which is more disgusting, eating a guinea pig or a regular pig – is there really any difference?” he asks. Cuy, or roasted guinea pig from Peru, is one of the exhibits at the museum, by the way.
-dpa