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| By Shardan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons |
One of the most delightful Mediterranean dishes is "Casu Marzu" from Sardinia. It is also called "maggot cheese."
To produce this scrumptious product, take ordinary sheep's milk cheese and expose it outside to cheese flies (Piophila casei). The flies will lay their eggs resulting in, of course, maggots. The maggots will ingest the cheese and excrete Casu Marzu from a specialized orifice called a "maggot anus." Eventually, you will have available for serving to your honored guests a malodorous ball of feces infested with larvae with a taste that will burn the tongue. Tradition requires that the diners eat the larvae along with the cheese.
Although now illegal in Sardinia (which should tell you something), the cheese is still highly regarded and can be found often at formal occasions where simple caviar will not do. The maggots are very active and can flick themselves six inches into the air. If you are at a Sardinian wedding and hear a clicking sound followed by an "ow," it probably means that a guest tried the cheese and a maggot landed in his eye.
Even if the larvae fail to inflict an eye injury, they are very hardy and will often survive the trip through the stomach and will end up in the intestines, where they will provoke vomiting and bloody diarrhea by attempting to bore through the intestinal wall.
To see how maggot cheese is made and Chef Gordon Ramsey's response to its flavor, click here.
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