Maggot Cheese?

[echophonic]

Wow. I'm hoping one of our friends from Italy can fill us in on this one. If anyone was listening to Fresh Air yesterday the second segment was on "extreme food." One of these was Casu Marzu, which is a type of cheese banned in Italy that contains maggots... on purpose. Apparently you can hear them, and you run the risk of them jumping ship and ending up in your hair.


Please oh Please oh Please oh Please oh please, someone from Italy tell me it's true. Anyone tried it?

 

[michaelskar]

I have, in fact, NOT tried maggot cheese.

 

[bjrn]

I'm not Italian, but I've seen this stuff. I did not try it, it made me shudder just looking at it.

 

[echophonic]

Ewwwww! Did it wiggle when you looked closely at it? Where did you see it?

 

[minstrel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_Marzu might shed some light on the matter?

 

[Wil]

I guess than Spinnenkäse would be off the menu as well....

 

[bjrn]

Ewwwww! Did it wiggle when you looked closely at it? Where did you see it?

I think it was some sort of crafts and home-made foods thing. And someone was there with the cheese as the pièce de résistance. So I hung around for a little while until he was going to cut it open.

It was just gross. I don't like insects, at all, and there were small worms moving around in the cheese. I (thankfully) didn't see any of them jumping out.


The wikipedia article sums things up pretty well.

 

[krawlx]

I think we should expand this into a "Strangest Food" thread. Any seconds?

 

[Newfie]

I think we should expand this into a "Strangest Food" thread. Any seconds?

I'll second that.

Cod Tongues are awesome when rolled in flour & pepper and fried in salted fat pork fat!!!!

 

[TimmyBoston]

This is the weirdest thing, I have never heard of this stuff until a couple of days ago when a buddy of mine and myself were trolling wikipedia and we were reading about it. Though, reading about it is as close as I will ever get, the stuff's absolutely disgusting.

 

[echophonic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_Marzu might shed some light on the matter?

I provided a link in the OP, along with a link to hear the interview.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

I like to think that I'm respectful of other cultures, but that is absolutely disgusting.

 

[minstrel]

I provided a link in the OP, along with a link to hear the interview.

So you did! I missed it. Still, it's so weird, it deserves linking to twice.

 

[Smooth Sensei]

I have actually eaten this cheese. Of course I removed the maggots since I really don't fancy eating anything that goes down still moving but I was rather disappointed at it. It is just a piece of cheese that has begun to rot, no special flavours or anything. I can imagine why it is banned by the Italian government because some of the others who ate it really became sick. I wouldn't recommend it but it is not like I hate it either.

 

[BBB3]

Makes a fantastic "dancing" pizza, by the way. The key is getting it just warm enough to melt the cheese without killing the maggots.

 

[Kenyth]

OMG! *barf*.


If you like this stuff, I've got some fresh hot fermented :9898: for you too. You can try it on toast and let me know how it goes! Stock up on your favorite flavor! The recipe changes daily!

 

[JimmyHAD]

I recall reading that Ernest Hemingway belonged to a club in Key West that had a membership requirement of swallowing a live shrimp whole. The article said that you could feel the shrimp kicking all the way down. Not as disgusting as the maggots but I am not adventurous enough to try either or.

 

[minstrel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut There's something else people who are into weird food can try.

 

[echophonic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut There's something else people who are into weird food can try.

Mexican Truffle?

 

[Suzuki]

I've had this - its pretty good.

No different than any other mushroom/fungus - totally different category than wormy cheese.

If you go to southern Mexico, the sell grasshoppers by the pound that have been fried with various seasonings - they ranged from little tiny ones to ones that were over an inch long.