Note: This article contains imagery that some readers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
A bizarre museum in Sweden recently opened its doors to people with a zeal for adventure. Disgusting Food Museum, which is showcasing the world’s most polarizing foods, houses a variety of ‘unusual’ grub- from root beer to century eggs. One person’s yuck is another person’s yum?
The museum, which is spread over a 400-square-meter space, allows visitors to touch, smell, and even taste foods considered disgusting from around the world. Among the 80 exhibits put on display, Vegemite and Twinkies hold a spot too.
The museum which is trying to change people’s perception of food, one bull penis at a time, will be open to the public until the end of January.
The brains behind the stomach-churning olfactory experience, Samuel West, wants people to reconsider their disgust towards food they shrug off as off-putting.
Just have a look at the ‘delicacies’ the museum has on display.
Bull penis, anyone?
You either hear the crunch when you bite into this Crispy Guinea Pig or get carried away in a stretcher after you faint.
Would you eat this maggot infested cheese from Sicily if you were paid to?
Witchetty grubs, which basically are wood-eating larvae also made it to the museum.
Jell-O salad. While the concept itself is repulsive enough, this dish apparently graces the tables of Americans every year during Thanksgiving.
The American favourite, root beer has its own exhibit too.
Root beer, if served to Europeans, will spit it out and tell you that it tastes like toothpaste.
This delicacy, called Spicy Rabbit Head, comes straight out of China.
Blood is drained from the rabbits, its guts pulled out, and the heads then are marinated for several hours before it is cooked and plated.
This fermented soybean dish is actually a traditional dish called Natto in Japan.
This wine infused with dead mice is just what was missing from our lives.
These fermented eggs, called Century Eggs, from China may look unappetising but are enjoyed in Asian households.
Made with duck eggs, they are preserved in a mixture of clay, quicklime, ash, salt and rice hulls for months. The fermentation turns the albumin black and gelatinous, and the yolk green-grey. While the final dish looks and smells horrific, the creamy flavour is enjoyed by many.
Sheep Eyeball Juice topped with an eye staring right back at you is the stuff nightmares are made of.
The taste of this cheese, called Su Callu Sardu, is often described as gasoline and ammonia mixed with wax.
…and this Fruit Bat.
And these are just a few of the nausea-inducing exhibits. While most of the 80 exhibits are real food, others are displayed as videos. The founder of the museum even wants to take the show on the road, bringing the experience to other cities.
One thing is for sure- this museum is not for the faint of heart… and stomach.