Disgusting Food Museum: what it’s like to eat larvae and baby rats – 11/22/2023 – Food

Tourism and gastronomy are activities so intrinsically linked that it is not strange to hear statements like that of American comedian Jim Gaffigan, who says that traveling is simply eating in places other than home. The search for delicious and different foods justifies, for many, a trip.

Hence the strangeness caused by a museum in Berlin that is dedicated to food, but uses as a ticket not a traditional ticket, but rather a paper vomit bag of those distributed on planes. The attraction there is not necessarily what is tasty, but what is strange and even disgusting.

Exaggeration and pantomime aside, the Disgusting Food Museum (DFM) was originally created in Sweden and brings together an exhibition of foods from around the world that are considered bizarre. The exhibition is assembled with photos, videos, models, descriptions and samples of smells and flavors that explore the world of foods that may sound strange to different cultures, causing shock, disgust and repulsion.

The proposal has a pop side anchored in the fame of TV programs from the 2000s, such as Bizarre Foods, by Andrew Zimmern, in memes that have been circulating since before the days of social networks on the internet with lists of the strangest foods in the world and on channels popular YouTube channels these days, like the Best Ever Food Review Show. But it also has a more serious, almost anthropological bias, showing that much of what we see as strange can be familiar to other cultures.

The museum argues that the evolutionary function of disgust is to help us avoid disease and unsafe foods, and that it is a universal emotion, but that often the foods we find disgusting are not disgusting in themselves, and seem that way because of our way of thinking. “What is delicious for one person may be revolting for another,” says the exhibition.

This characteristic is especially important in post-pandemic times. At the beginning of the spread of Covid-19, the suspicion that bat soup had been the origin of the new coronavirus generated a global wave of prejudice and repulsion towards eating habits little known in the West, but common in other parts of the world.

This is how the museum brings together delicacies that are foreign to the West, such as alcoholic drinks with snakes, a fermented drink with baby rats, cow’s blood, boiled fertilized eggs and different animal organs. But it also presents Western foods that may be strange to other cultures, such as aged cheeses, foie gras and even the twinkie, the industrialized US cupcake that is famous for “never going bad”.

DFM is informative and fun, but the limited offering of real food experiences can be a bit frustrating. Most of the foods presented only appear in the form of photographs and 3D models, and you need to read the text description to understand what they are about — which isn’t much better than watching TV shows or memes on the subject.

The most interesting part of the visit are the few foods that you can smell in jars that are placed closed throughout the museum, as well as the tasting of a small selection of foods considered disgusting offered at the end of the tour.

This is how a Westerner can have the first chance to get to know durian up close, a fruit that looks like a jackfruit and is famous (infamous?) worldwide because of its strong smell. At DFM it is possible to try what is usually described as “a mixture of pineapple and onion”, which has a milder and less unpleasant flavor than the smell makes it seem.

The really bad thing is hakarl, a shark traditionally eaten in Iceland that has a rubbery texture and an ammonia smell. Even worse is the aroma of surstromming, cans of fermented herring popular in Sweden that have a rotten smell that may, in fact, make you want to use the bag given as a museum ticket.

As the general idea is to make people put aside their prejudices, the best part of this tasting is being able to try insects, presented as a possible important source of proteins for the future world.

The museum allows you to try red beetle larvae (which have a rubbery texture and a slightly smoky flavor), silkworm pupae (crispy and light and look like a fried snack), crickets and grasshoppers (dried and with a flavor reminiscent of salted shrimp ), and beetle larvae (which could pass for cereal flakes, crunchy but without much flavor).

It is not an attraction for those with a weak stomach, and requires a certain amount of curiosity and a spirit of adventure. But it goes beyond simply presenting curiosities and can actually help overcome prejudices. As Berlin offers great gastronomic options (more because of its cosmopolitan character than because of its outstanding culinary tradition), it can be a good trip to spend time between meals.

Disputing Food Museum
Schützenstraße 70, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Fri to Tue, 12pm to 6pm, @disgustingfoodmuseum