A Stinky Smorgasbord

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

A Stinky Smorgasbord: Museum Showcases China’s Grossest Food

Sixth Tone looks at some of the putrid plates to be featured at the new Disgusting Food Museum in Sweden — along with a few other offerings that didn’t make the cut.

 

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A museum for disgusting food featuring distasteful dishes from around the world will open in Sweden at the end of October, and gastronomes are already taking note of two Chinese foods that have been offered a place at the table: stinky tofu and century eggs.

In addition to the early inductees from China, the exhibit in Malmö has selected 80 of the world’s most loathsome dishes, ranging from Sardinia’s maggot-infested cheese known as Casu Marzu to Iceland’s aged shark meat called Hákarl.

. . .

“We have carefully selected the items based on taste, smell, texture, and the background of the food,” Ahrens said. “An absolute criterion is that the food has to be real and still eaten, or historically significant.”

. . .

In recognition of China’s supposed passion for the unpalatable, here are 10 notable examples of the country’s most famously unsavory fare.

1. Century eggs

2. Stinky tofu

3. Stinky wax gourds, stinky green soybeans, and stinky amaranth

4. Stinky Mandarin fish

5. River snail rice noodles

6. Douzhi

7. Barbecued pig brain

8. Fried insects

9. Roasted bamboo rat

10. Animal genitals soaked in wine

 

[wawster]

Ok...I've only had the Stinky Tofu from a street vendor in Changsha, but it was delicious!

The others....just reading them makes me shudder!

[Randy W]

I've heard about the museum that the tickets are printed on barf bags! Hang on to yours!

[True Blue]

Ok...I've only had the Stinky Tofu from a street vendor in Changsha, but it was delicious!

The others....just reading them makes me shudder!

I liked the Chou dou fu too. It smelled very bad but tasted very good. Then again I liked Limburger and liederkrantz cheese.

[Allon]

I eat limburger too and some PrimHost or Primost. Gjetost. Colostrum cheese. And barf my guts up later. Norwegian father.....

 

The tofu sounds bad, considering I hate normal tofu. And I smell Mandarin fish nearly every day.