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When a museum hands you a vomit bag along with your entry ticket, you know things are going to be seriously gross – and if that tickles your fancy, then the Disgusting Food Museum is definitely for you! Hailing from Malmö in Sweden, this museum famously gathers over 80 of the world’s most polarising foods for your multi-sensory (dis)pleasure.
Expect a real assault on your senses with a combination of real foods, models, photo and video archives, scent installations, and interactive displays. Some of the disgusting foods on display include Surströmming, fermented herring from Sweden that’s long been considered the smelliest canned food on Earth; fermented shark meat from Iceland; cheese with live maggots that’s officially banned by the EU; frog smoothies; and Rocky Mountain Oysters (which you may know is actually a nice moniker for bull’s testicles).
Beyond shocking visitors, the Disgusting Food Museum actually also challenges people to consider what truly makes something ‘disgusting’. These dishes are all not considered very intimidating in their own cultures, so what do your reactions say about underlying food biases? And as unpalatable as these foods may seem, the exhibition also presents high-protein, low-carbon solutions that could tackle future food security.
The official Swedish museum team are also introducing unique touches just for the Hong Kong run, including new interactive displays and collaborations with local perfumers to recreate scents of specific foods authentically. Of course, after seeing everything, visitors will also have the opportunity to taste a curated selection of unusual foods. These could range from Australian Vegemite and crunchy crickets, to final bosses like Icelandic fermented shark! Keep your vomit bag handy, but if you manage to complete the challenge, you’ll earn the title of ‘Tastebud Warrior’.
The Disgusting Food Museum runs from September 29 to November 26 at Gate33 Gallery in Airside. Standard tickets are priced at $68 from Mondays to Thursdays, and $88 from Fridays to Sundays, with concessions and group discounts available. Right now, early-bird tickets starting from $48 have been released, but these are limited to 200 passes in total, so get a move on if you’d like to take on a Survivor-like food challenge!
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