Yes, there are really small dead mice swimming at the bottom of the big wine bottle! An absurd sight for European eyes. Much worse but still as the specialty from China's south is the smell of the next exhibit: The Icelandic Gammelhai Hákarl (pronounced: "Haukarrk") stinks really pathetic, every hair on the neck raises, the breath sinks. Even at a distance, the stomach reports.

In the former slaughterhouse of Malmö in western Sweden, directly opposite the Danish capital Copenhagen, Samuel West and Andreas Ahrens show 80 dishes from all over the world. Nasty dishes - depending on who you ask. Not for nothing is the museum called "Disgusting Food Museum". The exhibition will be open until the end of January 2019.

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"Disgusting Food Museum" in Malmö: Yuck, yuck

The selection ranges from the frog smoothie from Peru, to Madagascar from Sardinia, said Hákarl or rabbit heads, to Bullenpenis or ducklings cooked in the egg.

Most of the 80 exhibits are real. They are regularly exhibited fresh, you can touch them, smell them - and particularly daring visitors can test for themselves how far their disgusting limits can be postponed.

Three young Chinese arrived from Gothenburg to smell surstrying, stinking pickled herring - and a Swedish specialty. "We only know this from Youtube videos so far and wanted to see if we could handle the smell," they say. The test on the odor glass shows: you can.

Exhibition of human cruelty

At first glance, the show of culinary atrocities is more than a challenge for the olfactory nerves. "It would be a pretty one-sided freak show, we would show here only nasty food," says curator Samuel West. With each meal you also learn something about its history and its production. For example, the snake brand Habushu from Japan, for whom the snake is first cooled, gutted and sewn up. When she later thaws in the wine, she quickly dies in an aggressive pose.

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So it's not just a food show, but an exhibition of human cruelty. This is what visitors should think about, says Samuel West as he walks around between the exhibits and encourages them to touch, smell and taste.

What are we actually eating? Where does it come from? And what impact do our eating habits have on the environment? Visitors should think about these questions. Clearly, say West and Andreas Ahrens companion, humanity must reduce their meat production. They provide a more sustainable source of protein: larvae, grasshoppers and maggots are just as edible, but their production is not so harmful to the environment.

"Disgust is a cultural thing"

When going through the exhibition, not only the nose is required by numerous odor samples, such as the altar of stinking cheese. The emotion of disgust in itself is explored and explained. The creators are concerned with dealing with their own borders. Visitors should see that disgust is different in every country. "Disgust is a cultural thing," says Samuel West. You like the food you grow up with. What is one delicacy, however, may lead to violent strangle reactions in the other.

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Example Root Beer: As a half American, West loves the sweet brew. His Swedish friends do not like it. Salty licorice, for many Scandinavians a treat, on the other hand find many other people in the world not at all tasty. It does not have to be a sheep's eye swimming in tomato sauce.

West hopes that when people deal with the ambivalence of disgust, they may someday be willing to accept insects as food. "I expect no miracles," he says. "But I hope the museum is starting some discussions."

On the tasting table pig's brain, insect larvae, stinking durian fruit, gammel shark and millennial eggs from China are waiting for you. The interest is great, for visitors who dare, there are some applause - even if some bites discreetly ends up in the spit bag. In any case, the foul-smelling gammel shark tastes much better than it smells.