Cheese You Would Never Try?

[Grybukas]

I love cheese - in all forms and shapes. Fortunately enough, I live in Lombardy which is the region which has the largest variety, and we have everything from Quartirolo to Gorgonzola. So far I´ve never tried a cheese here which I disliked.

There is however one Italian cheese which is off-limits to me, and makes me cringe when I think about it. It´s the Sardinian cheese with the worms Despite the claimed health benefits, and how delicious it´s claimed to be - I cannot get over the fact that there are live worms inside........

Do you have an Italian cheese which you cannot bear trying?

 

[turtledove]

I'll have to agree with you about that Sardinian cheese with the maggots. I could never bring myself to eat something like that. However delicious or healthy, I'm not going to be able to stomach it... It makes me feel a little sick just thinking about it.

However, I think Italy has some of the best cheeses in the world. Gorgonzola is just incredible...

 

[notyourcommodity]

I've never heard of the cheese with maggots - that would be an absolute no-go for me!

These sort of foods often make me wonder who the first person was that tried it. I mean, who thinks to themselves "hmmm, this cheese has been infested with maggots...but maaaaaybe I'll still take a bite!"

It seems like there are unusual foods like that in every culture though!

 

[Grybukas]

I've never heard of the cheese with maggots - that would be an absolute no-go for me!
!

It's called Casu Marzu (Casu marzu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Maybe intially there was an issue with a shortage of food, or a famine of sorts, and the choise was between eating this cheese or nothing. (Or maybe one crazy villager wanted to go wild and tried it for no apparent reason). With time they grew fond of it, and started to produce it intentionally. In Sweden, there is a traditional dish of fermented fish. Due to the preservational method, it has the most faul smell one can imagine (imagine rotten fish, and eating it......) According to a study, a newly opened can has one of the most putrid food smells in the world. Whilst I like smelly cheeses, smelly fishs is not up my alley at all.

 

[notyourcommodity]

It's called Casu Marzu (Casu marzu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Maybe intially there was an issue with a shortage of food, or a famine of sorts, and the choise was between eating this cheese or nothing. (Or maybe one crazy villager wanted to go wild and tried it for no apparent reason). With time they grew fond of it, and started to produce it intentionally. In Sweden, there is a traditional dish of fermented fish. Due to the preservational method, it has the most faul smell one can imagine (imagine rotten fish, and eating it......) According to a study, a newly opened can has one of the most putrid food smells in the world. Whilst I like smelly cheeses, smelly fishs is not up my alley at all.

I'm going to assume it was a crazy villager going wild - to me that makes me laugh! It makes me sad to think if it was initially done out of necessity.

As well as the fermented fish in Sweden, there's a food in Japan called Natto which is fermented soybeans. They smell rotten and they're all stringy and goopy. A friend dared me to try them on a trip to Japan once, and all I can say is never again!