I’ve just found the article Casu Marzu on Wikipedia, and I’m extremely confused. Yes, I know the date, but the article was created like 3 years ago (and not to the day). So is this thing for real?! I know wikipedia has it’s problems, but it seems to be pretty good at spotting hoaxes and nihilartikels. I might even be willing to believe it if it wasn’t for the sentence “When disturbed, the larvae can jump for distances up to 15 cm (6 inches), prompting recommendations of eye protection for those eating the cheese.”. That just seems too much. The earliest source for the story seems to be a story in the Wall Street Journal in 2000. Personally, I’m inclined to believe the whole thing is a hoax perpetuated by the guy who wrote that article, Yaroslav Trofimov. What do you guys think? Is the maggot cheese real?
Here a link to an italian cheese site that mentions it.
My Grandfather was a medic in Sardinia during WWII and that was probably his favourite war story.
I actually saw a TV show do a short segment. They rolled camera while a bunch of old Europeans (don’t remember the country) cut the Sardinian maggot cheese. The narrator mentioned it was illegal there.
That is about the best metaphor for room-clearing stealth flatulation I ever did see.
Interesting. There’s another good site at everything2 s.v. cheese hoppers.
A prior thread on this topic. With more cites to more places, no less.
One among many seemingly stomach-turning foods is bird’s nest soup made from the slobbers of a variety of swallow.
A chinese friend took a bunch of us to a restaurant in San Francisco where we had the McCoy. It was OK, pretty good as a matter of fact, but not quite worth the high cost.
The chinese friend was the same one who made the steam buns that I ate - along with the waxed paper they were sitting on.
You gotta admire a guy who cares enough to make his own waxed paper.
I have birds’ nest soup at least a couple of times a month.
It’s a lot like jello in consistency.
When the steam buns were served I jumped right in and ate a couple and they were really good. Then I noticed someone peeling something off the bottom of one they were about to eat. So I actually looked at the next one and, sure enough, there was a small circle of waxed paper stuck to the bottom.
Hey, small children eat crayons with no ill effects other than colorful poo, don’t they? 
That said, I’ve had bird’s nest soup before – for my family, it’s a Special High Sort of Occasion food. Pretty good the way my mother makes it. If you really want to be grossed out, think about the way that they make cheese. Or fish sauce.
Sardinian maggot cheese is at least as real as Venezuelan beaver cheese.
Always nice to be the first to the obligatory Python reference.
Nothing in that thread, nor this one, convinces me this isn’t possibly an urban myth. Or a practical joke played on foreigners by Sardinians, using a hunk of rancid cheese.
Wait… Wait… Wait… Did your friend make the waxed paper, or did you eat it?
Never mind. I see you already answered the question. But your phrasing was somewhat ambiguous.
Googling around the name of the fly, it’s clear at least that it exists, thrive in mature cheese,can cause health issues and does jump (entomology, medical and forensic sites).
Besides, I can find so many references to the cheese (sites about tourism or about cheeses), some pictures of the cheese (for the record it looks like a brown paste), plus references to it in italian articles that if it doesn’t exist, it must be a vast conspiracy.
I didn’t find incontroversial evidences, though, and I assume the only way to do so would be to google italian sites related to health, agriculture or regulations. Not knowing italian, and having been quickly fed up with guesswork, I’m not going to do that, though.
There undoubtedly is such a thing as Venezuelan beaver cheese. Although it probably has nothing to do with dairy products or large rodents.
The best myths have an element of truth…
If you’ve got links to decent pictures, I’d be interested to see them - Google Images doesn’t exactly convince me.