Favorite dish of real gourmets. It is valued for its rich taste, indescribable aroma and combination with the best wines. It's all about cheese. In many countries, cheese is a gourmet dessert. It is served to already full people along with collection wine. Therefore, a delicacy can cost sky-high money. But the most expensive cheeses are worth it.

The most unusual cheeses in the world

Epuas cheese is considered one of the most original cheeses. By the way, this is one of Napoleon's favorite types of cheese. It is so smelly that it is even forbidden to transport it in public transport in France. A product with a disgusting aroma is made from raw cow's milk, the cheese rind is washed with apple cognac. Strong-smelling soft cheese should be discarded if it begins to smell of ammonia. In this case, Epuas simply deteriorated and became inedible.

Another rather original cheese is called Milbenkase. It is made in German Würchwitz using an unusual technology, which makes the product an unusual delicacy.

Milbencase - obtained from cottage cheese, which was left to be torn to pieces by thousands of dust mites. These are small insects and make the original product. The mites secrete an enzyme that makes the cheese 'ripe'. A month later, it acquires a yellowish tint, after three - brown, a year later the cheese turns into a black lump. Some gourmets adore him. The taste of the delicacy is a bit bitter, but it is believed that the cheese has medicinal properties. Some believe that Milbencase prevents the development of allergies to house dust. By the way, ticks are absorbed along with cheese.

The most unusual cheese with ticks - manufacturing technology

Halloumi cheese is a traditional Cypriot product. Cheese has a very high melting point, so it can be fried and grilled. No barbecue on the island is complete without halloumi. Surprisingly, the delicacy is often eaten during the warm season along with watermelon. Juicy slices are refreshing in the heat, and pieces of halloumi give an extraordinary taste.

By the way, halloumi is included in the Cypriot meze snack set. If, for example, you order beer in a Cypriot bar, then most likely they will bring a couple of pieces of halloumi along with it.

Cheese merchants who sell dairy products from all over the world refer to very few cheeses as "pungent". And the real indicator of causticity is the appearance of a person in a gas mask. So, if you ask a specialist to bring the most caustic cheese in the world, then it will most likely be Vieux-Lille. The pungent smell and salty taste can scare away and put everyone in a gas mask, because this delicacy is not for the faint of heart.

The cheese is called "Puant Macéré" and "Puant de Lille". Translated, it literally means "stinky marinade."

The most expensive cheeses in the world

Very expensive cheese is made on the Swiss farm Moose House. And the process requires moose milk. Moreover, the animal can be milked only at a certain time. The milking itself takes at least three hours. The cost of moose cheese is approximately one thousand euros per kilogram. And they produce a delicacy in limited quantities.

Expensive cheese is also produced in the Serbian reserve Zasavica. The delicacy is called Pule. And it's made from donkey's milk. Moreover, an ordinary animal will not work. Milk is taken from donkeys of an old Balkan breed. For the preparation of Pule cheese, only natural ingredients are taken.

Experts believe that such a product from the Serbian reserve is extremely good for health, because donkey milk has been used for medical purposes since ancient times. To prepare a kilogram of the most expensive Pule cheese, 25 liters of milk are needed. Hence the price - a thousand euros per kilogram.

The most expensive cheese with pieces of gold

It can be assumed that modern gourmets will not be surprised by much. It turned out that this was not the case. Anyone's head will spin at the invention of British cheese producers. They invited connoisseurs to try a special cheese, which is decorated with 24 carat gold flakes.

The unusual cheese is called Clawson Stilton Gold. It is made with quality Stilton cheese, edible gold foil and gold liqueur.

Golden cheese is produced by Long Clawson Dairy. It is located in the British county of Leicestershire. Representatives of the company say that there is an increased demand for an elite product. Cheese with pieces of gold is ordered for dinner by some pop stars, as well as sheikhs of the rich countries of the Persian Gulf. They are not even afraid of the price of a delicacy - one thousand dollars per kilogram of the product.

The most expensive rotten cheese

Another delicacy from the ranking of the most expensive cheeses in the world. Real gourmets appreciate the Italian cheese "Casu Marzu". This product is produced only in Sardinia. From Italian, the most unusual cheese in the world Casu marzu is translated as "wormy cheese" or "rotten". And it contains live insect larvae. To get such a delicacy, the usual pecorino cheese is taken as a basis in the cheese factory, brought to a state of decay (it occurs as a result of the vital activity of cheese fly larvae).

Larvae (worms) 8 millimeters in size settle in the delicacy, their number reaches several thousand. The acid of the worms accelerates the process of decay of cheese fat, as a result, the delicacy becomes soft and filled with liquid. If the larvae in the cheese have already died, then such cheese is not safe to eat, so the product is served with live white worms. Some connoisseurs take them out before a meal, some absorb them with larvae. For those who dare to try this cheese, connoisseurs have issued a warning: you need to be more careful while eating, disturbed insects can jump and get into your nose and eyes. They are able to jump to a height of 15 centimeters.

By the way, the most unusual and expensive "rotten" cheese is banned in Italy. But in some cheese dairies in Sardinia, a piece of delicacy is always hidden away.

The most expensive cheese in the world sold of all time

The most expensive cheese in the world, according to appraisers, is made from sheep's milk at the famous cheese factory of Jesus Ansola Huaristi. A half-kilogram head of cheese went under the hammer at an auction in Spain for a record 6.3 thousand euros.

Such a record can be considered significant, given the fact that such cheeses are valued at a maximum of 80 euros per kilogram. The most expensive cheese in the world was bought by the owner of a Spanish restaurant. He thought it would be great publicity for his restaurant.
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Everyone has their own gastronomic preferences, but you are unlikely to be very happy when, instead of an appetizing-looking dish, a waiter in a restaurant brings you food teeming with small worms. You can even imagine that a food service worker will wait longer for you to tip than rain somewhere in the middle of the Sahara. Tooting? If so, then you are clearly not a resident of the island of Sardinia.

It is believed that exotic and often unpleasant-looking delicacies are the specialty of the Far Eastern countries. Japan, China, and, of course, all of Southeast Asia offer countless ways for hobbyists to poke fun at food hygiene requirements. It turns out that old Europe is also not averse to joining this specific competition. Italy, or rather, Sardinia, is again at the forefront - it is there that they prepare delicious rotten cheese that captivated the hearts of many gourmets and sent a considerable number of lovers of unusual dishes to the next world.

The most dangerous delicacy on the planet. Photo nk-time.com

Terrible goodies is called "Casu marzu", which literally means "rotten cheese". This is true, because it is prepared from the famous "pecorino sardo". The ingredient for it is taken the same - sheep's milk, however, to make a delicacy, the cheese is exposed to the open air. Cheese flies immediately flock to such a luxurious gift, and each individual contributes to the future gourmet delicacy in the form of five hundred eggs laid. After some time, when the cheese is already sufficiently infected, it is removed to a special storage. This is where the fun begins. The well-known blue cheese is child's play compared to the Italian "rotten cheese". In the last of the eggs laid by the flies, larvae appear. They begin to eat the cheese from the inside, accelerating its fermentation, and at the same time “fertilizing” the products of their vital activity. The worms work professionally - after just three months, the entire core of the cheese circle becomes a green-brown porridge. The degree of readiness of "casu marzu" is determined by eye by the activity of the larvae. It is not difficult to notice it - after all, each head of the delicacy contains thousands of worms.

The origin of kasu marzu is a mystery. Obviously, no one planned to specifically produce fly-infested cheese - just one of the cheese makers placed infected cheese in storage along with the rest of the batch. History keeps secret the name of a daredevil who first decided to try a peculiar product - however, since then, "casu marzu" has become a real highlight of the local cuisine. The spooky-looking mess has become an excellent appetizer for strong red Sardinian wine.

"Rotten Cheese" has officially been named the world's most dangerous food by Newsweek magazine. When using it, the eater must comply with certain safety measures - because otherwise he risks his health. Firstly, the “filling” of this cheese is extremely restless. Cheese fly larvae have a rather unpleasant ability to jump up to 15 centimeters long. If the gourmet does not take care to wear special glasses, his meal runs the risk of being suddenly interrupted due to sudden damage to the eyeball. Eyes are protected from restless larvae with special glasses, sometimes they are simply covered with a hand or simply removed from cheese. To do this, given the number of the latter, is problematic. But there is a way out, prompted by Sardinian folk wisdom. The locals wrap a piece of cheese tightly in paper. The disturbed larvae begin to jump out, and with pleasant pops, reminiscent of the crackling of popcorn being prepared, they break on a dense sheet. When everything calms down, you can be sure that all future flies went to the forefathers.

There are also all kinds of overlays in the process of eating cheese. It happens that the larvae overcome the obstacle in the form of gastric juice and penetrate into the intestines. Everything would be fine, but they can easily drill through the mucous membrane of internal organs. There have been cases. In general, if you do not want your gastrointestinal tract to look like a sieve, this cheese is better not to try.

Ripe casu marzu. Photo rb.ru

Secondly, it is the danger of intestinal poisoning. "Kasu Marzu" is literally crammed with enzymes, many of which do not bring anything good for the human body, as they are the life product of cute worms. The result can be many days of indigestion, accompanied by all the unpleasant set of manifestations. It is also possible the occurrence of allergies, accompanied by the appearance of a skin rash.

But let's put aside all fears and false fears! It's so great to eat rotten Sardinian cheese, spread it on a piece of cake, and then disinfect your mouth with a strong cannonau! If you also think so, then read how to eat second-fresh cheese.

A real delicacy. Photo libo.ru

You only need to eat the inside of the cheese circle - cut off the top and get access to the core. Here it is, the long-awaited delicacy! A viscous mass can be eaten in any of the ways available to a person - with a spoon, fork, anything, even Chinese sticks. Pay attention - if the inhabitants of the cheese sit suspiciously quietly and do not move, then something is wrong here. The fact is that when dying, the larvae become toxic and poison all the cheese. If you try this, then nothing will save you from a hospital bed. The taste experience is described by a few daredevils as extremely spicy and intensely spicy - a rather lengthy characterization. Apparently, in the case of “rotten cheese”, proven wisdom applies: if you don’t try, you won’t understand. But here is what an appetizing sketch is presented to our attention by the magazine "Bon Appetit", an article in which is devoted to "casa marz". By the way, it is worth noting that there are no photographs that can nullify the whole game of imagination.

“He... took a piece of pane carasau, Sardinian bread, rinsed it with water to soften it, and took a large glass jar that was on the edge of the table. Then he opened it, scooped up a mound of something like heavy cream with bread, and folded the piece in half ... When he finished, I asked what kind of dish it was. He got up and showed me - inside the jar was cheese, in which white worms swarm. Although I had heard about this delicacy before, this was the first time I saw it live. His friend said, “This is rotten cheese, cheese with worms. Delicacy. This is the most beautiful gift you can give a Sardinian shepherd.” Beautiful, isn't it? This is the power of the written word.

Apparently, because of its original taste, "casu marzu" is considered one of the strongest aphrodisiacs in Sardinia. It is recommended that only men eat it, although the ladies will not interfere with this. Unless, of course, they want to taste a sticky mess with cheese fly larvae bouncing over it.

The most interesting thing is that perverted cheese-tasting addictions are typical not only for the inhabitants of Sardinia. With the islanders, the anomaly can still be explained by relative isolation from the mainland, etc. But in the rest of Italy there are people who enthusiastically indulge in the consumption of "expired" cheese! In Abruzzo it is called "marchetto", in Friuli it is called "salterello", in Calabria it is "quaju", and in Lazio the delicacy is called "marzolino". By the way, the sale of "casu marzu" throughout the country is officially banned, but Sardinian shepherds - a kind of bearers of old traditions - make a "delicacy" using a handicraft method, then selling it on the black market. And, it should be noted, among the Sardinians, the delicacy enjoys unheard of popularity, even despite the danger of poisoning and other possible troubles. Its price is three times higher than the cost of an ordinary pecorino, but this does not prevent local residents from buying it for all kinds of celebrations - be it weddings or birthdays.

We have already received a superficial idea about the taste preferences of the Sardinians. And what other not very pleasant-looking and simply dangerous delicacies still exist on our planet?

Again Italy - and beloved by the inhabitants of the Apennines "sambuca". In its composition, according to experts, there is an extract of uzina berries. This plant itself is known to be very dangerous: mature fruits are considered safe, but unripe ones contain cyanide. So it is recommended to drink this delicious liquor carefully and in small quantities.

The French make some varieties of their famous cheese using cheese pliers. They perform roughly the same function as the fly larvae in casu marzu, but, unlike Sardinian cheese, do not carry potential harm to human health.

Argan oil is also that delicacy. For the sake of the fruits of the argan tree, Moroccan wild goats have mastered the difficult science of climbing trees. Animals eat the fruits with pleasure, and at this time people downstairs diligently collect their droppings. From there, they extract the seeds of the plant, from which they make oil. It has a pleasant golden hue, is part of various cosmetics, and simply delicious - say the locals.

Extractors of raw materials for argan oil. Photo topnews.ru

And finally, it's time for Southeast Asia. The main yummy here is balut, or, more simply, a boiled duck egg. Namely, an egg that has reached the period of maturation of the embryo - with an already clearly distinguishable beak and plumage.

Philippine delicacy. Photo tumblr.com

The pleasure of eating a duck boiled in the bud is enhanced by the fact that it must be eaten along with the bones, appetizingly crunching and seasoning with vinegar - a very specific taste. Hungry for delicacies, Filipinos are so impatient that they can eat balut not even boiled - just pouring a fair amount of salt and pepper on the dish.

It is believed that the most unusual and strange dishes are prepared only in exotic countries. But it's not. For example, in Italy blue cheese is considered a delicacy. However, compared to other dairy products, it will seem like just flowers. A more disgusting product is cheese with worms. No, he's not corrupted. It is specially prepared and eaten with great pleasure.

Usually people, without hesitation, throw rotten food into the trash can, and even more so with live "stuffing". And this one is used voluntarily, and even money is paid for it. However, the Ministry of Health warns against eating such a specific delicacy. But first things first.

Let's delve into history

The delicacy itself with larvae is called casu marzu. The birthplace of cheese is the island of Sardinia, which is part of Italy. Apparently, in this country there is a special love for sour-milk delicacies. Who originally came up with this unusual dish, history is silent. It can only be assumed that once a farmer accidentally left a head of cheese infected with fly larvae to ripen. Then he was sorry to throw away an expensive product, he tried it and advertised it. Be that as it may, wormy cheese has become a traditional dish of Sardinia, which is not averse to eating locals and even tourists.

For the production of this delicacy, farmers performed many works. It all started with the milking of sheep and ended with the transportation of the finished product. Often the exposure depended on the time the shepherd was on the field, because they made a delicacy outside their home. It is noteworthy that cheese with cheese fly larvae was made exclusively for their family. It was rarely taken for sale, and then, if something remains. Each farmer called his product "my cheese" and could recognize it among other heads not only by taste, but also by appearance. This was due to the fact that each family had a special recipe for cooking.

Cooking technology

Today, wormy food is made on the basis of the Sardinian variety, which is brewed from the semi-finished product, cut and exposed to fresh air, where flies instantly flock to it to lay several thousand eggs. This is what farmers want. When the future cheese with worms is sufficiently infected, it is put on a shelf in storage.

After hatching, the larvae feed on the still unprepared delicacy and produce waste products that accelerate fermentation - the decomposition of fats. Due to the accelerated disintegration in texture, the cheese becomes very soft, and a liquid begins to flow out of it, which the locals conventionally call tears. Readiness is determined by eye - according to the degree of activity of the worms and their number. There can be several thousand of them in one head!

In terms of time, the entire process takes an average of three months. The finished product is really rotten, with a pronounced smell and a greenish-brown tint. It turns out that casu marzu is a cheese with live larvae that do not stop crawling while eating. This is why the strange Sardinian delicacy is popular. It looks a bit like a cheese made in Piedmont. Only the head, after laying eggs, is soaked in a mixture of white wine, grape juice and honey. This is done in order to prevent the larvae from hatching.

A little about cheese flies

These flies are very tiny, on average their narrow body reaches four millimeters. Being agile, they usually live near fisheries, smokehouses, food warehouses and cheese factories. During the mating season, these flies lay 40 to 120 eggs. And they do it for fresh, smoked or salty food: ham, lard, cheese, caviar, fish and other products that will attract them. But people do not hide kasu marzu from them at all.

The laid eggs develop perfectly in the heat, and the hatched larvae are incredibly viable. So, they can easily exist in a strong salt solution and up to thirty hours in kerosene. It is not surprising that these tenacious insects are distributed throughout the world.

If the worms penetrate the digestive tract, then this can result in the destruction of individual sections of the mucous membrane, pain in the pit of the stomach and typhoid-like diseases. As you can see, cheese with cheese fly larvae can result in health problems. Everywhere people exterminate these insects by various means, but not in Sardinia.

Consequences of eating cheese

People, eating a Sardinian delicacy, expose themselves to great danger. What can such experiments lead to?

• Allergic reactions.
• Toxic poisoning.
• Stomach ache.
• Vomit.
• Diarrhea with blood.
• Infection of the intestine, which ends with damage to internal organs.

It is difficult to disagree here that such consequences are too high a price for a piece of delicacy. However, the locals themselves claim that when eating cheese, the larvae must be alive, then everything will be fine.

Have you changed your mind about eating? Then cover your eyes, not your nose!

Sardinian cheese with worms is considered to be the most dangerous in the world. But poisoning is not all the larvae can do. The fact is that they move not only by crawling, but also by jumping. And they can jump up to 15 centimeters in height. That is, right in the face of an extreme eater. Often worms do this out of fear, and not out of a desire to harm on purpose. Be that as it may, in order to avoid damage to the eyeball, it is recommended to cover the eyelids or wear special goggles.

The taste of unusual cheese

In fact, it is very difficult to describe what kasu marzu tastes like. Some note a very delicate, viscous, creamy texture, the second highlight spicy, bitter notes, for others, the delicacy is too spicy and burning, like a fire in the mouth. Fans of unusual food claim that the wormy dish tastes like the most ordinary macaroni and cheese. Some Sardinian residents honestly say that this delicacy is not so tasty to taste and eat worms. But they don’t argue about tastes, because everyone has their own food preferences.

To you with larvae or without?

Many residents of Sardinia eat cheese directly with the larvae, but there are always squeamish people. Therefore, there are several ways to eat a wormy delicacy. Courageous eaters put on special goggles, cover their eyes with their hands, or simply do not lean low to the table at all.

To get rid of the live filling, a piece is wrapped in a dense sheet, depriving the worms of oxygen. They begin to jump and break against the paper walls with a characteristic crack. When everything calms down, the larvae are considered dead, and then the meal begins. However, cheese with worms that have died should not be consumed as they become toxic.

It is simply impossible to remove a thousand larvae. Therefore, cheese makers act more cunningly. They place the head in a plastic bag and tie it tightly. From a lack of oxygen, the worms leave their home, it remains only to shake off the extra inhabitants.

Features of eating a dish

The crust of cheese is not eaten, it is customary to eat only its inner soft part. The delicacy is divided into small pieces or cut off the top. Cheese pulp with larvae is taken out with a spoon or fork. Some Sardinians prefer to do it with traditional local flatbreads. Cheese is spread on one piece of bread, and the other is covered so that the worms do not jump out into the eyes. Such an unusual dinner is necessarily accompanied by a glass of strong red wine (cannonau), which the residents also prepare on their own.

Casu marzu cheese: price and points of sale

The cost of the delicacy is quite high - two hundred dollars per kilogram. Worm cheese is usually sold in tightly closed containers in small pieces of two hundred grams. However, this does not greatly smooth the situation. After all, tasting a delicacy costs about two thousand rubles!

You still have to try to find cheese with larvae. Previously, it was officially banned for sale, but since 2010, the dish has nevertheless received the title of cultural heritage. The delicacy is not sold in stores, it can be found on the market or ordered from local cheese makers.

If you have unusual taste preferences and someday will be in Sardinia, then grab a piece of bread and go in search of casu marzu. Just remember the dangers of this delicacy and think carefully about the consequences.

The most elite and most expensive coffee in the world is a product that came out of the intestines of a predatory animal of the genus civet. The "pits" of the grains are taken from the excrement of palm civet, washed and dried in the sun. The processed digestion product of a small predatory animal has a pleasant chocolate flavor.

Price: $600 per pound (about 500 grams)

Salangan bird nests

One of the most important delicacies in China has become the nests of salangan birds, the males of which spend whole days for several months working on their construction, building them entirely from their saliva. Due to the long time it takes to build one nest, the cost of them is quite big. The nests themselves are considered tasteless, but they are often added to soups, and most importantly, they have many medicinal qualities. This delicacy is served by tons to gourmets from different countries.

Price: from 1,000 to 10,000 dollars per kg

Argan oil

Moroccan wild goats have learned to climb trees to get the wonderful fruit of the argan tree. The animal eats the fruits, and the only thing left for the farmers to do is to collect the digested bones in their droppings. As a result, from these seeds a golden-hued oil is obtained, known for its healing properties. In addition, cosmetologists often add oil to various creams: to smooth wrinkles, moisturize, strengthen hair roots and against burns. In a word, not only doctors and cosmetologists were convinced of its merits, but also goats who learned to climb trees for the sake of the fruits of the treasured argan.

Price: $120 per liter

Kasu marzu cheese

It is an Italian delicacy from Sardinia, where its production is illegal. From the Sardinian Casu Marzu is translated as "rotten cheese", and this name went to him for a reason. Casu marzu is aged longer than the normal fermentation stage, bringing it to a state of decay. In this state, cheese flies take over it, laying their larvae in it. The larvae are almost centimeter-long worms that, moving through the cheese, secrete special enzymes that give it an even sharper smell, rotten taste, and a soft, creamy texture. They often like to treat themselves to decomposing cheese at weddings or other family celebrations.

Price: $100 per pound (500 gr)

snake wine

This Vietnamese delicacy is made in front of the restaurant's guests. The visitor is approached by a snake-breeder with a cobra, followed by an assistant with a metal tray, a small bowl, a decanter of rice wine and a pair of garden shears in his hands. After the general meeting, the process of killing the reptile follows, more precisely, cutting the belly with scissors. Dark snake blood is mixed with rice wine and offered to the visitor. "Ru tiet ren", snake wine, a gourmet must eat the still beating heart of a cobra. This whole procedure is accompanied by a tasting of the remaining insides of an evil snake. Locals believe that snake blood has healing properties and contributes to replenishment in the family.

Price: $21 per glass

Fugu fish

Trying puffer fish sashimi in Japan requires a fair amount of courage and excitement. Under the seemingly harmless name of fugu, there is a fish deadly to humans with a huge amount of poison inside. Therefore, only cooks who have special licenses for this and are able to measure exactly as much poison as a person needs for drug intoxication are allowed to cook it. Peculiar sensations after taking fugu cost visitors a pretty penny.

Price: $300 per kg

Balut

Balut is an essential part of every Filipino's daily diet. This dish is not only credited with miraculous properties, but also a very real effect on potency. What determines the demographic situation in the Philippines? Balut is simply a duck egg boiled in salt water. Only now a fully formed embryo of a duck with plumage and a barely visible beak will be cooked. In addition to the Filipinos, this dish is also practiced in other countries of Southeast Asia. The egg is best eaten with vinegar, as the boiled duck has a very specific taste. To tell the truth, this is not a sight for the faint of heart, although Filipino husbands like to look at the buds of feathers and pleasantly crunch on the barely formed bones of a small duck. Some people are so eager to eat balut that the egg is eaten raw, seasoned with a fair amount of salt and pepper.

Price: less than a dollar an egg

Ant caviar (Escamoles)

When unsuspecting black ants of the genus Liometopum lay their eggs in agave roots in Mexico, they are already being hunted. Just before the larvae are supposed to hatch, they are harvested and prepared from them the most real and very expensive delicacies. Collecting these larvae is not an easy task, one cannot do without protective clothing, since the relic species of ants, included in many Red Books, protects their offspring by releasing a poison dangerous to humans. As for the taste of the larvae, they are quite edible, and in their constitution, ant eggs are similar to cottage cheese. Most often, all the ants go to the Mexican Taco salad.

Price: $40 per pound (500 grams)

Letters from ZATEEVO's friends.

The letter was sent by Kitya Karlson, Canada.

Kitya Karlson graduated in 2000 from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. And, since "programmers" are taught well here, and Kitya Karlson himself learned English at school, he was invited to work in a Japanese company. Seeing the world is always interesting. Therefore, Kitya Karlson was happy to work as a programmer, first in Japan, then in Australia, and now he lives and works in Canada.

Do you know what unites all nations in the world? Cheese love! Tastes are definitely different. But there are so many cheeses in the world that there is a favorite for everyone.

Usually tourists are warned about the dangers that await them in a foreign country. So I want to warn you - ABOUT CHEESE!

If you studied geography at school, or at least once in your life saw a map of the world, then you probably know that Italy is similar in shape to a boot. And the neighboring Mediterranean island of Sardinia looks like it just got a boot on the bulldozer from Italy. Moreover, I know why. Sardinia gave the world one of the most delicate and most dangerous cheeses - Casu Marzu.

Every cheese lover knows that the main thing in cheese is aging. Most soft cheese varieties are aged under different conditions from several days to several years of slow milk fermentation, fat breakdown, oxidation and growth of the most delicate, delicious mold on a soft milk pillow, a flowing, weeping cheese.

But only on the island of Sardinia, this concept was taken one step further: cheese made from fresh sheep's milk is aged there for three months, during which people plant female cheese fly piophila casei on pieces of cheese, which lay larvae in milk.

Thousands of small, about 8 millimeters, translucent worms begin to eat the cheese, and a new liquid "lagrima", from the Italian word for "tears", begins to appear in the milk, making the texture of the cheese softer and softer. The originality of the result lies in the fact that such cheese can be deadly to humans in two cases:
- with dead worms, because of the danger of infection with cadaveric poison,
- with live worms, since the larvae of the cheese fly are resistant to gastric acid and, accordingly, continue to live in the stomach and intestines even after eating cheese.

Not surprisingly, such cheese in Sardinia is considered extremely healthy and costs a lot of money.

Naturally, I never ate Kasa Marzu myself. However, this is not the only cheese with living beings. One of my truly favorite hard cheeses is Mimolette. Mimolette is not at all as exotic as Casu Marzu and is freely sold almost all over the world, so I hope each of you will know someday its wonderful taste. The most delicious thing about this orange hard cheese is its porous, slightly grayish crust. This crust is the poop of cheese mites (among which they themselves run), tiny arachnids specially bred on this cheese, which can only be seen under a microscope.

Of all the places in the Canadian city of Vancouver, near which I now live, there is only one that I visit with enviable regularity - the Granville market. As I have already noticed, the North American approach to nutrition is quite different from the European one, but the Granville market is the very place where you can find delicacies imported from Europe and Asia: cheeses and sausages from France, sweets and rare fruits from Israel, and much, much more. . There is, though scarce, though expensive, but fortunately for me there are refugee cheeses that are illegally in Canada, officially banned for consumption in North America for security reasons. For some mysterious reason, many French cheeses made from fresh, unpasteurized milk seem like pure poison to local officials. But we know better, right?

In my favorite, and in fact the only French cheese shop there, I also saw a small piece of an old mimolette. The grey, porous crust, swarming with invisible mites, was gone, having been carefully cut off on all sides with a knife. Now I can’t understand everything, either the customs didn’t let the ticks in, or the seller himself ate everything tasty!