Foodies often like to playfully boast about their adventurous palates, and how they're willing to try everything. It's great to be so open minded, especially if you're traveling and more likely to come across foods that you might not be familiar with. But even the most daring taste buds have their limits.
For many, that limit just might be found in a Sardinian cheese called casu marzu, which translates to "rotting cheese." And if you think something like this is akin to blue cheese, with mold running throughout, think again; casu marzu exists on an entirely different level of rotten. What makes it so difficult to digest is the fact that it is crawling with maggots.
There's really no pretty way to put it. These creepy crawlies are intentionally placed within the cheese in its early stages of production and remain there, even as it is served. Once ingested, the maggots can potentially survive the treacherous dip in stomach acids and may pass through the intestinal walls, causing a mess of health concerns.
These cases are rare, but still, because of this, casu marzu is also known as the world's most dangerous cheese. If you're willing to try this extreme delicacy, your best chance in finding it is going to be in Sardinia, as it's almost universally banned. Even on the Italian island, you're not likely to come across it in trattorias or markets in piazzas; typically, families make their own.
Why so wormy? The cheese starts out innocently enough; it's basically a wheel of Pecorino.