The Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö is Surprisingly Fun

The Disgusting Food Museum Showcases Gross Food

When entering the Disgusting Food Museum, you are first greeted with a sign that helps explain a bit more about the museum, while also giving a great breakdown of the different forms of disgust that exist. Be sure to read this, as it sets the tone for all the exhibits you are about to see. When ready, you are instructed to follow a path that winds between all the exhibits.

Along the way, you get to stop at several dozen small stands focusing on dishes from around the world that, true to name, some find disgusting. Some of these contain the real food (such as casu martzu cheese with live maggots- seen wiggling around in the on-site block of cheese), while others have more illustrative features (like a pig statue full of syringes while discussing animal health).

But instead of just showcasing food that some find to be, well, rather gross, the museum does a great job of showing why people eat each dish (including historical significance, how it is prepared, etc.) in addition to the elements that others may find off-putting- often revolving around the smell or taste.

Suffice it to say, you walk away with an appreciation that “gross” is actually a relative term, as you are sure to find a dish you’ve had (and perhaps even enjoyed!) lined up against others that you find off-putting. One person’s delicacy is another’s disgust, after all.

This was our favorite element of the museum, as you actually do get a sense of why humans have eaten different kinds of food throughout our history. They’re not forcing you to fall in love with any given item. The exhibits are also not designed to be all that shocking, either. It is just a unique way to take a look at foods that, if we could be a little diplomatic, are not for everyone.

In addition to the individual displays, some exhibits, particularly those known for notoriously bad odors, have little jars on-site that you can pick up, open, and take a whiff of if you really want to get the full experience. Although some of the smells were, in a word, pungent, I actually quite liked this interactive element of the museum and didn’t find any of the smells to be so revolting that I wanted to vacate the premises.

That comes later at the tasting bar.

In addition to disgusting food, the museum also had exhibits on-site for dangerous foods. Think of dishes that, if not prepared properly, could kill you (e.g., fugu), or a historical event that caused an otherwise safe food to become dangerous (e.g., when diethylene glycol was added to Austrian wines in the 1980s).

Put all of this together, and the Disgusting Food Museum does a really good job at taking a well-rounded look at foods many would consider gross, while others just consider a normal part of everyday life.

But then you are offered to taste some disgusting foods, and that changes everything.

You Can Try the Food, Too (If You’re Brave Enough)

After working your way through the museum itself, you end at a tasting bar that doubles as a food challenge, where you can try many of the disgusting foods showcased on site.

During our visit, the tasting progression went from some of the more “reasonable” disgusting foods first, like sauerkraut soda and funky blue cheeses, before moving on to more out-there items like fermented shark, natto, salty licorice, and finishing with a lineup of some of the world’s spiciest hot sauces for the masochists who really want to win a prize.

I’ll be the first to admit that I tapped out of this one pretty early.

I normally consider myself a pretty adventurous eater, but this one got to me and made my stomach turn rather quickly. I could make excuses, like how I’ve tried many of these disgusting foods before (once you have fermented shark in Iceland, you really don’t want it a second time). But in reality, it was the rapid succession of foods, and perhaps their corresponding smells, that really did me in.

One disgusting food in a vacuum is fine. A dozen in rapid succession, not so much. It was such a crazy lineup that I tried to put it out of my memory as much as possible- it really gets intense in a hurry.

Those who made it much further get all the praise here, as I just couldn’t do it. But if you will indulge me, I’ll revert back to the excuse I gave while we were at the museum itself- I just wanted to enjoy my lunch afterward. That part was true, even if I will also recognize that it was an excuse.

But, be warned, they have a running chalkboard of the total number of vomits, and I suspect that their “Days Since” counter is permanently locked on zero as well. Some things just can’t be avoided, after all.

The Disgusting Food Museum is located at Sldra Förstadsgatan 2 in Malmö, Sweden.