A Roman poet once wrote, ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’.  Simply put, it means you may like something that I do not. For example, you like stinky tofu and I don’t. All of us have different tastes, and from time to time we argue about them. Sometimes, those arguments can be interesting.

There is a museum in Sweden called the ‘Disgusting Food Museum’. It explores what our Roman poet was writing about all those years ago. Within the museum are 80 exhibits, that show what may be described as the most disgusting foods in the world. If you feel nervous about this subject, you will feel no better when you buy your entry ticket. Instead of receiving a ticket, visitors are given a sick bag. Could it get worse?

The answer is yes. Within the exhibition are some really ‘disgusting foods’, which you can smell or taste. Some foods are considered to be so bad, only replicas are available to look at. Some foods are represented by just their smell and photos, while others can only be watched on video.

So, what would you consider to be disgusting? Do you think your friends might agree with your selection? Take, for example, the king of fruits, the durian. During the right season, these are available in most supermarkets where we live. However, many people from different parts of the world cannot believe anyone would put something that smells so disgusting into their mouths. Andrew Zimmern, the host of the TV show Bizarre Foods, who famously eats anything, spat durian out of his mouth in his show. He described it as being like eating completely rotten mushy onions. Is he right?

Here are some of the other exhibits:

• Balut – From the Philippines. A boiled duck egg that includes a partly developed foetus.
• Sheep Eyeball Juice – From Mongolia. It is said that when Mongolians drink too much alcohol, they will drink a sheep’s eyeball that has been dropped into tomato juice.
• Haggis – From Scotland. The sheep’s heart, liver, lung, and kidneys are chopped up, wrapped in the sheep’s stomach, and then boiled.
• Baby Mouse Wine – From China. Sadly, this does not mean baby wine for mice. It’s rice wine from southern China that has baby mice in it. They’re dead, of course. Could anything be worse? Perhaps fully-grown mice?

The exhibition is curated by Samuel West. He spent over 12 months collecting the museum’s exhibits. He said that when choosing the items, they had to be disgusting, interesting, and food that was regularly eaten by a group of people somewhere in the world.

It’s a fascinating exhibition. Take a look at some of the photos. Do you think we would include all of these items if the exhibition was showing where you live?

A 60-second introduction to the Disgusting Food Museum