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From fermented sharks to maggot cheese: The ‘Disgusting Food Museum’ in Sweden is not for the faint-hearted

From spicy rabbit heads to fruit bat soup, the collection, now on display at Disgusting Food Museum, Malmo, aims to challenge perceptions of taste and help visitors contemplate why one culture’s abomination is another’s delicacy. 

Swedish, city of Malmo, Disgusting Food Museum Do you dare smell the world’s stinkiest cheese? (Source: Official site)

It is said the best way to solve cultural indifference and intolerance is to travel and experience different ways of life. And from what it looks like, the Disgusting food museum in Sweden does just that. From spicy rabbit heads to fruit bat soup, the collection at the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmo aims to challenge perceptions of taste and help visitors contemplate why one culture’s abomination is another’s delicacy.

Talking about the Icelandic fermented shark to news agency Reuters, Dr. Samuel West, a psychologist and museum’s founder said, “It tastes like chewing on a urine-infested mattress. Anthony Bourdain, the late TV personality, called it the single most disgusting thing he’d ever eaten, and I totally agree with him.”

The exhibited delicacies in the museum include

Surströmming – fermented herring from Sweden

Surströmming is sour herring (forage fish), that is fermented. They are plucked out of the Baltic sea before they are stored for months to stew in their own bacteria.

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Cuy – roasted guinea pigs from Peru 

Cuy, one of Peru’s most famous dishes, is not for the faint of heart – a roasted guinea pig, it is a Peruvian delicacy and has been a staple in Peru’s Andean diet for around 5,000 years now.

Casu marzu – maggot-infested cheese from Sardinia 

Casu marzu is considered not just a culinary cuisine but a cultural heritage of Sardinia, Italy’s second largest island. According to VICE, the sheep’s milk cheese gets its flavour and texture as the live maggots eat the cheese, digest it, and then expel an acid that causes the hard cheese to break down and become spreadable.

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Stinky tofu – pungent bean curd from China 

This notorious fermented bean curd, infamous for its odour, is a popular staple in China and Taiwan. After a precise fermentation process is done in the brine, the tofu is soaked and the pungent bean curd is made from it.

Hákarl – well-aged shark from Iceland 

A Greenland shark which is fermented and hung to dry for four to five months is the national dish of Iceland. Reportedly, this is done to get rid of acid in the flesh.

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Durian – infamously stinky fruit from Thailand 

It won’t be wrong to say that it is one of the smelliest fruits in the world. The fruit can weigh between two to seven pounds and it has been banned at several public places in countries like Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong.

The exhibit has 80 of the world’s most disgusting foods. Adventurous visitors will appreciate the opportunity to smell and taste some of these notorious foods. While these kinds of food-related museums are often a popular subject for the selfie and social media clicks but this one aims to help people learn and think critically about other cultures.

First uploaded on: 12-11-2018 at 10:02 IST
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