I usually like to think of myself as a guy who will eat anything once. If people go out of their way to make it and consume it, there has to be something going for it. Am I right or am I right?

However, I draw the line at insects. Bugs creep me out. Eating them is completely out of the question. This is why I am shocked and skeeved as fuck at the existence of Casu Marzu, a.k.a. “Rotten Cheese“, “Jumping Cheese” or “Maggot Cheese“.

The dead black sheep of the Pecorino family, the Sardinian Casu Marzu is purposely infected with the larvae of the Cheese Fly (Piophila casei) and allowed to go far past the ripening stage and into full-on decomposition. The cheese becomes goopy, seeping liquid and infested with tiny, translucent-white maggots that wriggle and squiggle and can jump up to six inches when disturbed. Mmm…maggots.

So what’s it taste like, you wonder?

“…a viscous, pungent goo that burns the tongue and can affect other parts of the body”

Enough said.

Banned from sale in Italy, but available via the black market, it’s usually consumed with bread and strong red wine (it’d have to be really fucking strong, I would assume) and is known to cause potential health problems such as allergic reactions, toxic poisoning (from letting it rot too far along) and intestinal larval infection.

Topped on french fries, it makes a lovely appetizer.

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