Getting in Touch with my Maggot Phobia
July 27th 2009 21:00
A friend, knowing my phobia of maggots, told me about the casu marzu dish, which is a cheese that is filled with maggots, bringing the fermentation to the point of decomposition. You can check this out HERE
For some reason, this cheese does not freak me out as much as I would expect. Probably because the maggots can’t be seen in the picture. If the maggots are in the photo then they must be small ones, not the ugly white wriggly fly ones you normally see. Actually, the cheese looks nice which leads me to my friend Fred’s guide to food.
Fred is very particular about what he eats. He is the only person I know who could spend hours wandering around a food court and not be able to find anything to eat. Fred’s fussiness is due to the fact he is put off by badly presented food. So, in his famous words, is his food test:
“Firstly, it has to sound nice. Then it has to look nice. It also has to smell nice. Finally, it has to taste nice. If it doesn’t pass the first three tests I don’t even get that far.”
So Italian food is out. “I don’t like the way they sound,” he says. “Penne, linguine, fettuccine…they all sound greasy.”
One time, we were celebrating my sister’s birthday at an Italian restaurant. Fred decided not to order. I had garlic, mustard and chicken penne while my sister had a Greek salad. I offered Fred some of my penne.
“You’ve got to be joking,” he said. “You give me one of those brown tubes to eat and I will vomit.”
“They’re yellow, not brown,” I corrected.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Fred.
I am fussy about food but in a different way: While presentation plays a big role in Fred’s aversion to food, mine is I simply don’t like a lot of foods – namely dairy products (except for Parmesan cheese), most meats and seafood. It can be presented in the nicest possible way but I still won’t like it.
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