{"id":21214,"date":"2022-05-04T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T10:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromplacetoplace.travel\/?p=21214"},"modified":"2022-05-05T11:12:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T09:12:02","slug":"berlin-disgusting-food-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromplacetoplace.travel\/germany\/berlin\/berlin-disgusting-food-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgusting Food Museum Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the city’s most unusual museums is located in the middle of Berlin, where everything revolves around the topic of disgust. The Disgusting Food Museum Berlin wants to show visitors the world of disgust in all its different facets. And who knows, maybe you’ll find out that not everything is disgusting after all\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"Berlin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is disgust?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Disgust is a basic human emotion and occurs in all cultures worldwide. Disgust is an emotion and expresses extreme aversion to certain things. Disgust does not only have to refer to taste, it can also include aversion to, for example, smells, consistencies or behaviours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that really matters is that each person has their own feelings of disgust, whose reaction in the body can also vary in intensity. In contrast to other, less strong forms of aversion, disgust sometimes manifests itself through strong physical reactions such as nausea and vomiting, sweating, falling blood pressure and even fainting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientifically, disgust is not only considered an affect, but also an instinct. It is innate, influenced by socialisation and also serves to prevent disease. Research has not yet fully deciphered the topic of disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Konservendosen<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Visit to the exhibition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before visiting the exhibition at the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin, every visitor should be aware that things are shown that can cause disgust. The visit is not suitable for everyone and anyone who can claim to be very sensitive to visual stimuli and smells should think twice before going there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its exhibition, the museum does not want to pillory things from other regions and cultures that are labelled with the “disgust factor” in our country. Rather, it wants to show that there are comparable things in our world. Let’s take two types of cheese as an example, both of which come from Europe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casu Marzu and W\u00fcrchwitzer mite cheese<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Casu Marzu is a cheese from Italy (Sardinia). The loaf of cheese is cut open and placed in the open air. Cheese flies then lay their eggs there. Maggots develop, which break down the fat of the cheese with their enzyme and whose excrement becomes part of the cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see a cheese with its live maggots in the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin. (The cheese is put into the refrigerator every evening, the maggots are stored separately and only put back into the cheese the next day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"K\u00e4se<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The consumption of the cheese is banned in the EU. The maggots that also crawl into the cheese could survive in the human body and damage the intestinal walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W\u00fcrchwitz mite cheese comes from Saxony-Anhalt and is traditionally produced in Zeitz. The dried and moulded low-fat curd is matured with small mites in a wooden box for over 3 months. The mite saliva ferments the raw cheese and gives it a salty taste. Even though you can’t see the mites on the cheese with the naked eye, they live on the cheese too. The cheese is eaten with the mites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which cheese now counts as disgusting food – I think the Casu Marzu is more likely to make museum visitors uncomfortable, as you can see the maggots crawling large and clearly over the cheese here. But is it therefore more disgusting than the cheese with small, barely visible and living mites? Certainly a matter of opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View of the Disgusting Food exhibits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is divided into product groups, starting with drinks and ending with sweet products. In addition to some short explanations at the exhibits, video sequences (for example about animal husbandry and the torture of animals) are shown, you can take a smell sample at some places and from mid-May 2022 the audio guide “Sound of Disgust” will accompany you through the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Berlin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A side note: Of course, the museum takes care to handle the food as sustainably as possible. Some exhibits are not displayed as originals because of their short shelf life, but consist of almost genuine copies made of durable material. Other foods are kept refrigerated at night and keep for a very long time. If I hadn’t been told in some places that there was no original there, I wouldn’t have noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The variety of different exhibits is astonishing and I would like to present only a few here. In the process, the question arose for me with each exhibit: “Does this have a disgust factor for me? What is disgusting about it and why do I think so?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouse wine from China<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Mouse
Babym\u00e4use in Reiswein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n