Disgusting Food Museum comes to Hong Kong

One man’s meat is another man’s poison — what seems strange to some may be a delicacy to others.

The Disgusting Food Museum from Sweden is now staging an exhibition in Hong Kong, inviting visitors to get up close with more than 80 unusual foods from around the world. 

The lineup ranges from casu marzu (a maggot-infested cheese from Sardinia) and jugo de rana (frog juice from Peru) to high-protein insects and China’s famous stinky tofu.

Visitors receive a vomit bag upon entering the exhibition, which features even more challenging foods, including kiviak (auks stuffed into a seal carcass and fermented in Greenland), Rocky Mountain Oysters (deep-fried testicles), and sheep eyeball juice from Mongolia. 

Chinese specialties on display include spicy rabbit heads and century eggs.

At a fermented-food section, visitors can encounter intensely pungent dishes such as surströmming (fermented herring from Sweden), hákarl (fermented shark from Iceland). 

Casu marzu and sheep eyeball juice on display at the Disgusting Food Museum’s exhibition in Hong Kong. Photos from Hong Kong Commercial Daily

Surströmming and insects on display at the Hong Kong exhibition.

The exhibition offers a full assault on the senses, combining real foods, models, photographs, videos, scent installations and interactive displays. But it is about more than simply testing visitors’ stomachs. It asks a provocative question: What exactly makes something “disgusting”?

Ingredients taken for granted in one culture may be taboo in another, while dishes that seem terrifying to outsiders can be cherished cultural treasures at home. Through this, the exhibition aims to uncover the stories and traditions behind dishes that may seem unusual to outsiders.

Visitors sample foods and scents at the Hong Kong exhibition.

The exhibition also looks at the future of food, from high-protein, low-carbon insects to lab-grown meat. While such foods may not appeal to everyone today, they could play a role in addressing future food challenges and reducing pressure on the planet.

Adventurous visitors can sample some of the foods on display. Just remember to keep your vomit bag handy.

Dates: Through Nov. 26

Hours: Noon-8 p.m. (Mon.-Thu.), 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (Fri.-Sun., public holidays)

Tickets: HK$68 (Mon.-Thu.), HK$88 (Fri.-Sun., public holidays), various discounts available

Venue: GATE33 Gallery, 3/F, AIRSIDE, 2 Concorde Road, Kai Tak, Kowloon, Hong Kong (香港九龙启德协调道2号AIRSIDE GATE33艺文馆)

MTR: Kai Tak Station (启德站)