A fun article about a Foods of Mankind museum in Hong Kong:

"There's no pretension of grandeur or professional design here: The 1,000 or so exhibits, collected from all over the world by the owners and some 10 like-minded friends, are for the most part displayed casually. The only full-time staff, Susan Szeto, is manager, marketing officer and museum guide all at once. The exhibits are accompanied by brief notes in Chinese, some grayed and smudged. And no, they don't serve truffle or foie gras samples here, although one is welcome to enjoy curry fish balls for HK$5.

I come aquiver with anticipation of quirky and even kitschy displays, and I am not disappointed. Visitors may be dismayed or delighted to know there's a Styrofoam replica of the world's largest pumpkin (the real one weighed 513 kilograms); a tiny room displays what looks like a papier-mache model of an Indian and a hut in illustration of the origins of grilling and barbecue; an Egyptian section is decked out with statues and several random bronze pots; and a giant meter-tall pepper grinder which, says museum owner and teacher Man Cheung, is the largest of its kind and apparently pried from the hands of a reluctant Parisian shopkeeper for about HK$4,780.

Whole sections are devoted to coffee and tea, grains, salts and sugars; shelves are lined with 100 kinds of pasta, more jars of pickles and 200 kinds of herbs and spices."