Like caviar, Casu Marzu is enjoyed only by a select population -- it's served with live maggots and has an aftertaste that lasts for hours.
Casu Marzu (Italy) —
Like caviar, Casu Marzu is enjoyed only by a select population -- it's served with live maggots and has an aftertaste that lasts for hours.
Shardan, Creative Commons
Just when you thought the Italians took the proverbial cheese for their maggots, along come the Germans with their mite excrement variety.Produced in Würchwitz from quark, Milbenkase sits among dust mites for several months, with some rye for them to nibble on.The mites excrete an enzyme to ripen the cheese that turns it progressively yellow, red-brown and then black, at which point it's eaten, mites and all.
Milbenkase (Germany) —
Just when you thought the Italians took the proverbial cheese for their maggots, along come the Germans with their mite excrement variety.Produced in Würchwitz from quark, Milbenkase sits among dust mites for several months, with some rye for them to nibble on.The mites excrete an enzyme to ripen the cheese that turns it progressively yellow, red-brown and then black, at which point it's eaten, mites and all.
Dundak, Creative Commons
Yak cheese -- actually from the "nak" (female) of the species -- is cut into pieces and allowed to dry. It can be hard enough to break teeth.
Yak cheese (Tibetan communities) —
Yak cheese -- actually from the "nak" (female) of the species -- is cut into pieces and allowed to dry. It can be hard enough to break teeth.
Joanne Lane/www.visitedplanet.co
To make Airag, a cheese common in Central Asia, a mare is milked during foaling season and the milk left to ferment with an agent such as last season's airag.
Airag cheese (Central Asia) —
To make Airag, a cheese common in Central Asia, a mare is milked during foaling season and the milk left to ferment with an agent such as last season's airag.
Joanne Lane / www.visitedplanet.com
Life on the harsh Altiplano would be a struggle without the alpacas and llamas that give their dung for fuel, hide for leather, wool for clothing and milk for cheese.
Alpaca and llama cheese (Andes) —
Life on the harsh Altiplano would be a struggle without the alpacas and llamas that give their dung for fuel, hide for leather, wool for clothing and milk for cheese.
Joanne Lane/www.visitedplanet.co
After New York chef Daniel Angerer made breast milk cheese with help from his wife, a restaurant in London sold breast-milk ice cream called Baby Gaga. Served at the Icecreamists cafe in central London, the ice cream is made with milk from 15 women who replied to an advertisement posted on an online mothers' forum.
Human milk cheese (New York) —
After New York chef Daniel Angerer made breast milk cheese with help from his wife, a restaurant in London sold breast-milk ice cream called Baby Gaga. Served at the Icecreamists cafe in central London, the ice cream is made with milk from 15 women who replied to an advertisement posted on an online mothers' forum.
BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
Smooth, creamy and super-melty it may be, but American cheese isn't really cheese at all, even by the most elastic standards.
American cheese —
Smooth, creamy and super-melty it may be, but American cheese isn't really cheese at all, even by the most elastic standards.
jeffreyw, Creative Commons
Nomadic herders across Africa have been milking their camels for centuries. However, milking a camel is rarely easy.
Camel's milk cheese (North Africa) —
Nomadic herders across Africa have been milking their camels for centuries. However, milking a camel is rarely easy.
Joanne Lane/www.visitedplanet.co
Inspired by the Inuit, who reportedly once ate a blue-cheese-like fermented lichen from the stomach of caribou, a small Quebec company is experimenting with a new cheese product made from lichen.
Lichen cheese (Canada) —
Inspired by the Inuit, who reportedly once ate a blue-cheese-like fermented lichen from the stomach of caribou, a small Quebec company is experimenting with a new cheese product made from lichen.
Dean Biggins/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, creative commons
The combined work of scientists and a cheese maker in New Zealand have resulted in the first cheese from the red deer.
Deer milk cheese (New Zealand) —
The combined work of scientists and a cheese maker in New Zealand have resulted in the first cheese from the red deer.
Keven Law, creative commons
About 25 liters are required to make just one kilogram of donkey cheese. That means the white, crumbly pule is both limited and costly. Currently it goes for about €1,000 a kilo, or $576 a pound.
Donkey milk cheese (Serbia) —
About 25 liters are required to make just one kilogram of donkey cheese. That means the white, crumbly pule is both limited and costly. Currently it goes for about €1,000 a kilo, or $576 a pound.
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images