U casgiu merzu is corsican for rotten cheese. It was not too long ago, during a small weekend mini break in Corsica for the wedding of Victor's cousin, that I discovered a natural anesthesia.
The wedding was very intimate and the couple truly lavished their gusts with fabulous food. The dinner was a beautiful buffet of small little dishes, to pick and choose yourself. I had a mountain on my plate! Corsican charcuterie, fresh salmon, mini tuna tartare, mini taboulé cups, curried ratataouille and all sort of lovely things.
I was so stuffed, I skipped the cheese platter and waited patiently at the table for Victor to return, so I can pick off some cheese from him. One of our table mates came back and a truly rancid odor took over the place. Did he fart? Did the little dog running around poop? Really awful stinge.
The culprit? A corsican cheese outlawed in France because of its un-hygienic and un-sanitary character. U casgiu merzu, rotten cheese, looks like chunky peanut butter, smells like week old garbage and tastes like? Like nothing I've ever eaten in my life. A small bit on a large piece of bread is potent enough to haunt you for the rest of the night.
It was HOT! Yes, so putrid it was hot in the mouth and numbs the palette and tongue. The odor of sulphur and twenty year old roquefort lingers forever... Its like a wax that coats your entire mouth and stays, no matter what. Corsican red wine? Nope just tastes like rusty water...
We were bowled over laughing as we gave unsuspecting cousins large pieces watching their faces turn from bright red to green!
What's the deal? U casgiu merzu is in fact a simple tome de Brebis (goat's cheese) that we leave in open air for a very long time. The idea is to attract as many flies as possible so that they may lay their eggs in the cheese and that the maggots will eventually ferment the cheese. What we had was two years old... According to the laughing maître 'd this is not strong at all. A real U casgiu merzu can go for up to ten years!! And to prove their virilty, the men from the villages eat the maggots...
Ooh là. After seeing all my tablemates' faces turn green... it took a lot of courage to try this local delicacy.
This was for me a grand act of culinary bravery.
I think I'll be a coward for a while and stick to my chèvre frais...
The wedding was very intimate and the couple truly lavished their gusts with fabulous food. The dinner was a beautiful buffet of small little dishes, to pick and choose yourself. I had a mountain on my plate! Corsican charcuterie, fresh salmon, mini tuna tartare, mini taboulé cups, curried ratataouille and all sort of lovely things.
I was so stuffed, I skipped the cheese platter and waited patiently at the table for Victor to return, so I can pick off some cheese from him. One of our table mates came back and a truly rancid odor took over the place. Did he fart? Did the little dog running around poop? Really awful stinge.
The culprit? A corsican cheese outlawed in France because of its un-hygienic and un-sanitary character. U casgiu merzu, rotten cheese, looks like chunky peanut butter, smells like week old garbage and tastes like? Like nothing I've ever eaten in my life. A small bit on a large piece of bread is potent enough to haunt you for the rest of the night.
It was HOT! Yes, so putrid it was hot in the mouth and numbs the palette and tongue. The odor of sulphur and twenty year old roquefort lingers forever... Its like a wax that coats your entire mouth and stays, no matter what. Corsican red wine? Nope just tastes like rusty water...
We were bowled over laughing as we gave unsuspecting cousins large pieces watching their faces turn from bright red to green!
What's the deal? U casgiu merzu is in fact a simple tome de Brebis (goat's cheese) that we leave in open air for a very long time. The idea is to attract as many flies as possible so that they may lay their eggs in the cheese and that the maggots will eventually ferment the cheese. What we had was two years old... According to the laughing maître 'd this is not strong at all. A real U casgiu merzu can go for up to ten years!! And to prove their virilty, the men from the villages eat the maggots...
Ooh là. After seeing all my tablemates' faces turn green... it took a lot of courage to try this local delicacy.
This was for me a grand act of culinary bravery.
I think I'll be a coward for a while and stick to my chèvre frais...
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