The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: linnea on January 25, 2007, 09:50:02 pm
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/cool/food_flash.shtml
So I was bored and started checking out slang in various languages on the intarwub. I was curious about the origin of "Que pasa, guey!" I asked a guy that I work with, a fella from El Salvador, what it meant. He paused thoughtfully, considered a tasteful way to phrase it, and replied, "It means, your wife - she is having an affair." I figured that it had some other meaning and he was trying to be polite, but Lo and behold, guey is slang for cuckold. Thank you Internet, and thank you Sal for your helpful translation services.
Anyway...as the internet goes, I found the BBC's delightful site that provides audio clips of slang in various languages (such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/cool/food_flash.shtml). In Italian, "uno spuntino" means a snack, unless you are in Sardenia... then apparently it means
"an all-day eating marathon in the woods with a whole cooked sheep, mountains of vegetables, cheese with worms (I promise there's no better cheese) and rivers of wine."
Intrigued, because I LOVE CHEESE and could not imagine sullying it with worms, and so I wanted to figure out what this was all about...I did a search.
Feast your eyes on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu
Casu marzu (also called casu modde, casu cundhídu, or in Italian formaggio marcio) is a cheese found in Sardinia, Italy, notable for being riddled with live insect larvae. Casu marzu means "rotten cheese" in Sardinian.
Derived from Pecorino Sardo, casu marzu goes beyond typical fermentation to a stage most would consider to be decomposition, brought about by the digestive action of the larvae of the cheese fly, Piophila casei. These larvae are deliberately introduced to the cheese, promoting an advanced level of fermentation and breaking down the cheese's fats. The texture of the cheese becomes very soft, with some liquid (called "lagrima", from the Sardinian for "tears") seeping out. The larvae themselves appear as translucent, white worms, about 8 mm (1/3 inch) long. When disturbed, the larvae can jump for distances up to 15 cm (6 inches), prompting recommendations of eye protection for those eating the cheese. Some people clear the larvae from the cheese before consuming; others do not.
Appearance and taste
Yaroslav Trofimov, writing in the August 23, 2000 edition of The Wall Street Journal, describes the cheese as "a viscous, pungent goo that burns the tongue and can affect other parts of the body".Susan Herrmann Loomis reports an encounter (in a 2002 Bon Appétit article):
He … grabbed a piece of pane carasau, the traditional flatbread of Sardinia, rinsed it quickly under water to soften it and went to a large glass jar on a side table. He opened the jar, scooped out a mound of what looked like thick cream, and folded the bread around it. …When he was finished I asked what he had eaten, and he got up to show me. Inside the jar was pecorino, busy with small, white worms. I'd heard about this cheese, but this was the first time I'd gotten so close. … A friend of his … said, 'It's formaggio marcio [literally, "rotten cheese"], cheese with worms. It's a delicacy. It's the most beautiful gift you can give a Sardinian shepherd.'
The cheese is typically consumed with Sardinian bread (pane carasau) and Cannonau, a strong red wine.
Dangers
Several food safety issues have been raised with casu marzu:
* Anecdotal reports of allergic reactions.
* A risk of the decomposition advancing to a toxic state. (Folk wisdom in Sardinia holds that still-living larvae are an assurance that this has not yet happened.)
* Risk of enteric myiasis: intestinal larval infection. Piophila casei larvae can pass through the stomach alive (human stomach acids do not usually kill them) and take up residency for some period of time in the intestines, where they can cause serious lesions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal walls. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, pain in the abdomen, and bloody diarrhea.
Because of these health threats, or simply because it is considered a contaminated product, casu marzu cheese cannot be legally sold in Italy. Within Sardinia, enforcement of the ban is sporadic and the cheese is available as a black market item, selling for about three times pecorino's price.
It's safe to say I will never eat such a thing. Good on ya, brave Sardinians who eat this stuff. It takes all kinds, I guess. Anyone ever traveled to Sardinia?
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Possum recipes in one thread, rotten worm cheese tales in another and Quail Jesus amongst us'n.
TOUAMB IS ON FIRE TODAY.
Goddam why they got to do such a thing!?!
(it was a good read lady)
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Man.
The folks at xkcd have some choice words about Wikipedia: http://www.xkcd.com/c214.html
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Man.
The folks at xkcd have some choice words about Wikipedia: http://www.xkcd.com/c214.html
Can'd. For both posts in fact. I love a good pecorino, I've been massacring my way through a fine Bruckley of late, and while I am brave when it comes to odd foods that are considered classics, there is no way I am going to eat cheese worms. I mean, even before reading the fuck*ng dangers, I was of the mind that I don't need to eat anything activated by worms.
As for wikipedia, yet again xkcd gets it spot on. I do wonder if some day I'm going to be found dead, sat in front of a firefox window with a thousand open tabs, brain overloaded, words spilling from my ear, eyes crossed, starved and dehydrated.
It's a serious concern!
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Man.
As someone grossed out by the concept of blue cheese, this is mindblowingly gross.
...but only slightly grosser than blue cheese, really.
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man, I can one-up this.
Check this out. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinkheads)
I cannot find the other one... the one that is similar, except they just put the giraffe in a sack and leave them out back of their house.
I swear to God they do that. I saw it on... some show. on the Discovery Channel, I think.
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Call me weird but... rotten giraffe heads seem less gross than blue cheese to me.
I mean, still gross? But I just do not get blue cheese.
At least the giraffe become impregnated with disgusting germs... incidentally. Blue cheese being filled with disgusting germs is the entire POINT.
Heathcliff would eat this eskimo delicacy. Heathcliff would not eat blue cheese.
I invoke The Heathcliff Rule.
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wow. I did not know that that was how they made that shit.
I thought I didn't like it because it was just... nasty.
But now I know. Penicillin. Wow.
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Doesn't all aged cheese have purposely introduced baceria? And yogurt and miso are both alive when you eat them.
And worchestershite sauce is traditionally made from rotten giraffe. Although I think nowadays they just use fresh giraffe-drippings.
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Doesn't all aged cheese have purposely introduced baceria? And yogurt and miso are both alive when you eat them.
And worchestershite sauce is traditionally made from rotten giraffe. Although I think nowadays they just use fresh giraffe-drippings.
That is very true (I didn't know that about Worcestershire though!!). However, yogurt and miso contain probiotics that actually improve the health of your tum. On the other hand, casu marzu is illegal in Italy because it carries the risk of enteric myiasis: intestinal larval infection.
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That is very true (I didn't know that about Worcestershire though!!). However, yogurt and miso contain probiotics that actually improve the health of your tum. On the other hand, casu marzu is illegal in Italy because it carries the risk of enteric myiasis: intestinal larval infection.
This is why they make vegetarian Worcestershire sauce. It's also why some sad, misguided restaurants think that traditional Caesar salad has anchovies in it when in reality it has Worcestershire which contains giraffe.
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Worms: not to be eaten.
Parasites in general: not to be eaten.
Yeast: OK in food.
Bacteria: (many varieties) OK in food.
I think those rotten giraffe are what are sometimes called "Stink heads," which is the nickname for Mark Schlereth, a football analyist I enjoy listening to. He got the nickname "stink" because he is from Alaska and he was describing stink heads to his team when he was a rookie, and everyone just called him that forever. So I guess be careful what you tell your co-workers about when you are new.
I guess what I'm saying here is that I will eat unicellular organisms infesting other food media, but once the additive has its own digestive tract the game is over.
Also: My father asks for anchovies on his Caesar in the nicest places, and that bothers me.
Also also: the original home of the Cesar salad is a restaurant not too far across the border in Mexico, but I am not planning to go there to have one. Cesar is dead anyway.
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Doesn't all aged cheese have purposely introduced baceria? And yogurt and miso are both alive when you eat them.
Indeed, the best cheeses are those which are crumbly, or have enough pockets of air to allow the good stuff to happen. And of course blue cheese (which I am also not especially a fan of - not due to flavour so much, but the mould dust as it hits the tongue) is typically not compressed at all so as to leave larger spaces. And as mentioned, cured meats (salami for instance) relies on bacteria. Oh, and as for not eating worms being a general thing, tell that to various nomadic peoples...
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wait... Salami? Really?
I fuck*ng love Salami. and Bologna.
But the best is... pastrami. I think. This one time I ordered Salami, and what they brought me was not salami... it was... amazing. And I was told by others that it looked like pastrami.
I want that sandwich.
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wait... Salami? Really?
Pickling and fermentation are tricks our ancestors invented to keep noxious organisms from eating our food. When salt &/or acid levels are high enough, the bugs that make food rotten and poisonous don't grow well. The bugs that do grow are the ones that excrete acid (lactic, acetic, etc) or ethanol, and CO2 which makes tangy, boozy, or puffy things (respectively) happen to the foodstuffs.
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I guess what I am saying is that...
I understand that tiny bugs are involved in the creation of some foods.
My desire is to be able to pretend that they aren't there.
In a normal cheese... or yogurt... or what have you... their prescence is invisible.
Blue cheese invokes, to my palate, the idea of entire veins of tiny bugs through the entire device... so thick in their bugginess that the colour is completely visible. This may not be the truth of the matter but there we are. It seems to be as though it contains the canals of Mars, full of blue bugs.
"See no evil" is a huge culinary rule for me.
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"See no evil" is a huge culinary rule for me.
Witchetty grub for littlefalls on isle 5...
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Blue cheese invokes, to my palate, the idea of entire veins of tiny bugs through the entire device... so thick in their bugginess that the colour is completely visible. This may not be the truth of the matter but there we are. It seems to be as though it contains the canals of Mars, full of blue bugs.
Oh, for fuck sake. Thanks for ruining blue cheese for me. Seriously. That imagery is burned into my brain now. God damn it.
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I recently went to a beer and cheese dinner (not wine and cheese) where the cheese course consisted of unpasteurized Blue, Unpasteurized goat cheese, and an awesomely nutty cheddar. Except for the cheddar, there was hell of mold running all through the cheese... and it was AWESOME.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is, cheese is and always will be the most disgusting food available, and yet it is still SO GOOD. So don't let a little blue Blue get you down. Just eat it anyway because it is delicious.
Also, if you are anywhere near Delaware, I recommend the Doggiraffe Head brewery in Rehobeth for all your beer needs. And also on certain Sundays, your eating needs also.
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acid (lactic, acetic, etc) or ethanol, and CO2 which makes tangy, boozy, or puffy things (respectively) happen to the foodstuffs.
A tiny can for you! Three cheers for food preservation and especially "tangy, boozy, or puffy things (respectively)" happening to our food.
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I cannot find the other one... the one that is similar, except they just put the giraffe in a sack and leave them out back of their house.
Sorry to get off the topic of cheese, but I think this may be hakarl, or putrefied shark meat. This is how it's made. (http://www.isholf.is/gullis/jo/shark.htm) If you don't like eating chewy ammonia-flavored pieces of stinky old meat, then you probably won't like hakarl.
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Sorry to get off the topic of cheese, but I think this may be hakarl, or putrefied shark meat. This is how it's made. (http://www.isholf.is/gullis/jo/shark.htm) If you don't like eating chewy ammonia-flavored pieces of stinky old meat, then you probably won't like hakarl.
It's one of the few things I've seen Bourdain actively avoid. That and the Danish buffet of nasty bits.
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My clock radio just woke me up to Diane Rehm interviewing a guy about how deliberate infection with live diseases is the future of immunology, or something like that. He's promoting his new book, Survival of the Sickest. (http://survivalofthesickestthebook.com/index.html)
I would have a comment about this re: moldy cheese/sharks and suchlike but I have to go to class, so I'll just post this here at random instead and cross my fingers.