A Failed Quest: My Search For "Casu Marzu"

Maybe it really is sometimes better not to get what you want.  The past few days in Sardegna reminded me of that.

A couple of friends who have spent lots of time in Sardegna told us about a special dish that locals in Sardegna have eaten for thousands of years.  Despite its long pedigree, this delicacy is now very hard to come by.  The reason is that it is now illegal - the EU has banned it.

The dish which became my obsession for 72 hours is called casu marzu.  I asked dozens of shop owners, restaurant staff, and hotel front-desk personnel if they knew where we could get some.  My inquiries were invariably met with laughter, surprise, and/or detailed explanations about how Sardegnans prepare this gastronomic link to their cultural past.  The respondents all confirmed that casu marzu is available on the black market or behind closed doors.  But you really have to know insiders or old-timers to procure some.

Casu marzu is a type of cheese.  It is a cheese that is teeming with thousands of live worms.  And, yes, you eat the cheese with the worms still crawling inside it.  In one wine and cheese shop, the helpful owner was so excited to get asked about casu marzu that he waxed on and on about it.  He said that the cheese maker carves a hole into the top of the cheese, waits for moths to land on and burrow into the cheese, and then allows the moths to deposit thousands of eggs into it.  When the eggs hatch, voila - the cheese is infested with larvae, and you have your casu marzu!  Here's how wikipedia explains the process:  "The acid from the maggots' digestive system breaks down the cheese's fats, making the texture of the cheese very soft; by the time it is ready for consumption, a typical casu marzu will contain thousands of these maggots."

A whole bunch of websites that I found provide all the explanation you'd ever want about casu marzu. Some of them say that you should wear eye-gear that blocks your sight when you eat it.  The rationale is not so much that you won't want to see what you're eating - although that is probably true.  The real reason is that the worms are apparently frolicking about and some will inevitably jump out of the cheese.  You need to protect your eyes from them.

There were a few moments of optimism. The staff at our hotel front desk on a couple of occasions said they had leads and that they'd make some calls for us.  But, in the end, they were unable to come through.  I should probably consider myself lucky.  If they actually got some casu marzu for us - and after all the talk and my incessant questions - I would have had no choice but to eat it.

Here's one great article:  mentalfloss.com/article/20523/casu-marzu-maggot-cheese-mediterranean

Here's another (which classifies casu marzu as one of the 6 most terrifying foods in the world):  cracked.com/article_14979_the-6-most-terrifying-foods-in-world.html

And just one more:  grassrootsgourmet.net/2010/02/01/casu-marzu-italys-forbidden-maggot-cheese/

Here's also wikipedia:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu