Most museums have a visual culture, but this little museum takes guests on a multisensory tour. The Disgusting Food Museum also challenges our culinary biases.
Descriptive Transcript
Haben faces the camera holding a closed jar. Behind her is a wall of red and yellow cans.
Haben: A lot of museums focus on visuals. I’m at a museum that’s now encouraging people to explore their sense of smell and their sense of taste. We’re at the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden, and there are dangerous foods here and foods that are known for being … disgusting. And I’m holding a jar that has a bit of Surströmming, which is fermented fish that is well known in Sweden. I’m opening the jar… oh dear!
The jar has white fabric material absorbing the scent. There is a white label with black text on the outside of the jar that says, “Smelling Jar: Surströmming.” She raises the jar to her nose, then pulls back, her eyes widening.
Haben: Yeah, that smells very, very fishy. I’m told… my cousin Brook tells me it smells a lot worse in real life, when it’s the real thing. And there have been court cases all about this scent!
The video cuts to her speaking in front of a black curtain.
Haben: They had lots of different things for us to taste here. I tried durian, the fruit.
Photo: The rind is green and covered in sharp spikes. Inside the soft, oblong, yellow fruit is surrounded by a white pith, like that of an orange.
Haben: It kind of tastes like a mix of onion and mango.
Inside the museum, she holds a toothpick with a small, gray sliver of something that shines as though it’s slimy.
Haben (Voiceover): I tried Surströmming, the very famous fermented fish from Sweden.
She cautiously bites and chews.
Haben: Oh, it’s definitely not as bad as I feared!
Back to the room with the black curtains.
Haben: The one that challenged me was salt licorice. The first time I tried it, it was this overwhelming salt flavor and my mouth was full of salt and I just spit it out because it was too much. Then my cousin told me it’s super popular here in Sweden, so I gave it another try.
Behind a long counter, staff hand out samples to guests. A black table cloth hangs over the side of the counter with the text, “DFM Yuck! (Disgusting Food Museum).” Haben stands several feet in front of the counter, and her guide dog Mylo looks up at her inquisitively.
Haben: My favorite so far was pickled cabbage juice from Eastern Europe. And now I have a popular Swedish candy, salt licorice I think it’s called, and it’s kind of like a block of salt and squishy like licorice.
Photo: Circular, black pieces of licorice coated in white, fine-grain salt.
Haben squeezes the piece of licorice she’s been holding gently between two fingers. It’s about the size of a quarter and formed in the shape of a cube. She pops the licorice in her mouth. Her eyes widen and she smiles as she chews.
Haben (Voiceover): Chewing.
(Nervous laughter).
Haben (Voiceover): I look shocked and amused as I struggle to keep chewing!
Haben finishes chewing the salty licorice.
Haben: The inside is very sweet, like licorice and the outside is salty. The first time, I couldn’t finish it because it was so salty on the outside. The trick is to start chewing right away, so the salt and sugar mixes.
She looks to the right, speaking to her cousin out of frame.
Haben: Okay, I figured it out!
Back to the room with the black curtains.
Haben: What I found at this museum is that things are never as bad as we think they’re going to be. It’s excellent to have a place where we can challenge our sense of taste, our sense of smell, and learn about food from around the world.