Page 32 - AT

A32 FEATURE
Monday 14 october 2019
Gag! Rotting fish, maggots on menu at Disgusting Food Museum

By ALEKSANDAR LJUBO- lens onto ourselves, on
JEVIC and VANESSA GERA Swedish or American food
Associated Press culture, we are saying, 'We
MALMO, Sweden (AP) — treat everyone the same,'"
Sheep eyeball juice. Bull West said.
testicles. Maggot-infested West said he has managed
cheese. American root only to sample about half
beer. of the more exotic collect-
These are among the items ed consumables. Asked if
considered palatable or he ever vomited while pre-
even regarded as delica- paring the exhibition, he
cies in some cultures that said, "Every day."
the Disgusting Food Mu- Some of the delicacies are
seum in Malmo, Sweden is so smelly they are kept in
serving up. glass jars. At a museum
The temporary museum, preview last week, people
which opened Wednes- took tentative sniffs of the
day, clearly braced for re- displays before recoiling
volted visitors to gag at the with grimaces.
foods on display, most of "Real food in the museum
which can be smelled or setting can be a problem,"
tasted. Tickets came in the said Andreas Ahrens, mu-
form of vomit bags. seum director and cura-
Curator Samuel West said In this photo taken on Sept. 22, 2018 a container of Mice wine on display at the Disgusting Food tor. "You have to change
the exhibition is meant to Museum, in Malmo, Sweden. Baby mice are drowned and brewed in rice wine and the brew is things pretty regularly. You
entertain, but also to con- matured for up to a year before drinking. have to make sure that it
vey a thought-provoking Associated Press doesn't start to rot."
message: what is consid- sumed in China and Korea, "casu marzu," a Sardinian many others. Or as West put it: "You can't
ered appetizing or repul- and Sweden's "surstrom- pecorino cheese infested American foods on display leave bull testicles out for
sive is learned and can ming," an infamously putrid by maggots. include Jell-O salad, made too long."
change. He hopes visitors fermented herring. Also included are items of gelatin and typically West, a clinical psycholo-
will be encouraged to try Visitors are also introduced many Western visitors might fruit; canned pork brains gist and researcher from
more sustainable food to "balut," partially devel- not consider disgusting at with milk gravy; and root California, was also the cre-
products that are being oped duck fetuses that are all. Swedish visitors are sur- beer, a sweet soft drink ator of the Museum of Fail-
developed or marketed, boiled inside the egg and prised to find salty licorice, which Swedes say tastes ure, a successful showcase
like insects and lab-grown eaten straight from the shell popular in Sweden but like toothpaste. of products that failed with
meat. in the Philippines, as well as perceived as disgusting to "I think that by turning the consumers. It also opened
"Disgust is one of the six in Sweden and will be
fundamental human emo- shown soon in Shanghai.
tions, and the evolution- Hakan Jonsson, a Lund Uni-
ary function of disgust is to versity ethnology professor
help us to avoid foods that who helped with research
might be dangerous, that for the exhibition, said no-
are contaminated, toxic, tions of what people find
gone off," West said. delicious and disgusting
"Disgust is hardwired as are already changing.
an emotion but what we "A lot of big groups in (the)
find disgusting is culturally Western world are all of a
learned." sudden thinking 'Meat has
The idea of exploring gross become disgusting, some-
food came to him with thing that I could never put
awareness that the "single into my mouth,'" he said.
most impactful way we can "And that is something quite
impact the environment new in the history here,
is by eating less meat," he where something consid-
said. ered as being normal, and
"It's an exhibition that asks prestigious, being the thing
visitors to challenge their that you were aiming for
notions of what is disgusting Sunday, and all of a sud-
and what is delicious, and den that had become a
the aim is to get people to matter of disgust for many
understand there is no ob- people."
jective measure of disgust," The Disgusting Food Muse-
West said. "For some, the um is scheduled to run until
revelation might be that Jan. 27, 2019, at the Slag-
'maybe insects aren't as thuset MMX in Malmo.
disgusting as I thought.'" Museum organizers said
The 80 food items in the the museum shop offers a
museum's exhibit include selection of "unusual" drinks
a bull's penis, frog smooth- In this photo taken on Sept. 22, 2018 a bowl of Natto a traditional Japanese food made from and snacks and promise a
ies from Peru, a wine made soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis var, on display at the Disgusting Food Museum, in Malmo, restaurant operating in the
of baby mice that is con- Sweden. Associated Press building is "not disgusting."q