There is an exhibit at the A + D Architecture and Design Museum that shows the good, bad and ugly food from around the world. Inside visitors can see, smell and even taste some of the most “disgusting” presented on tables with a fact sheet. Of the 80 International delicacies and unfamiliar foods, a few are actually delicious, while others are more of an acquired taste.

Have you ever been curious about exotic foods from China, Peru and Uganda? Now until Feb. 17, 2019 you will learn how food is more than sustenance, it connects people and can sometimes turn strangers into friends.

Pay the $15 entrance fee or $20 for two Yelpers, and receive a Barf Bag as your entrance ticket (the day we visited, they had tallied 30 vomits that day). I tell you, when they call this pop-up Disgusting Food, they mean it!

Stop at the Disgust Chart to learn how researchers have identified 7 categories of disgust. Food is one of them, as people grow disgusted with rotten or contaminated food that can be dangerous to eat. For example moldy fruit or lumpy, sour milk. The evolutionary function of disgust is to help us avoid disease and unsafe food.

What you will learn while exploring this pop-up of food, is what might be delicious to one person can be revolting to another.

Exhibited delicacies include: Stinky cheese from France; fried grasshopper from Uganda; Pink candy musk sticks from Australia; fruit bat urine soup from Guam; fermented herring from Sweden; roasted guinea pigs (cuy) from Peru; bull penis from China; maggot-infested cheese (Casu marzu) from Sardinia; stinky tofu pungent bean curd from China; and Hákarl well-aged shark from Iceland. Some we just looked at, others we could smell.

Some of the foods we saw, smelled or tasted at the Tasting Bar were actually pleasing, including the infamous Durian stinky fruit from Thailand.

Other Tasting Bar delicacies included crunching a crispy bamboo worm (not bad), swiping some Australia’s Vegemite sandwich spread onto your tongue (nay), popping in a Japanese black Century Egg for a quick chew (I passed), sipping Spruce (pine flavored) beer made in Bristol, RI (tolerable and sweet) or a Polish Sauerkraut favorite – Sok Z Kiszonej Kapusty (similar to Kombucha). One whiff of the preserved shark meat and my internal alarm system blared – NO!

Info: Disgusting Food Museum Pop-Up from Dec 9 – Feb 17

Located at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum

900 E. 4th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013

Walk in hours – CLOSED – Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesday – Friday: 2 pm – 8 pm

Saturday -Sunday: 12 pm – 7 pm. Last entry is one hour before closing

Prices: General Admission (13+): $15 weekdays / $18 weekends

Children 12 and younger: $10. Groups of 10 or more: please contact USA@disgustingfoodmuseum.com

Disgusting Food Pop-up in LA is also published in PATCH https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/disgusting-food-pop-la