Interesting Facts

The island of Ikaria is almost as far east as Greece gets,  just 100 square miles in size, the mountainous island is 30 miles off the coast of Turkey, but that's not what makes it interesting. What is interesting is the people there live longer and better than almost anywhere else on the planet. (According to longevity expert, Dan Buettner, Ikaria has that certain je ne sais quoi, and he has added Ikaria to the list of places in the world that have come closest to cracking the secret of eternal life.  A study showed that people on Ikaria were reaching the age of 90 with two and a half times the frequency of Americans. Ikarian men, in particular, are four times as likely to reach 90, often in better health. Other places on the list are: the island of Okinawa in Japan, the town of Loma Linda in California, certain parts of Costa Rica and the hills around the province of Nuoro in Sardinia. So, now you know. Oh and there's a web site (of course) of all these blue zone...

Casu marzu (also called casu modde, casu cundhídu in Sardinian dialects, or in Italian formaggio marcio) is a traditional Sardinian sheep's milk cheese. But, I hear you asking, what makes it interesting? Well it's notable for being riddled with maggots. (It's name literally means "rotten cheese" in Sardinian, and the cheese is known colloquially as maggot cheese. Derived from Pecorino, Casu marzu goes beyond typical fermentation to a stage most would consider rotten. This decomposition is brought about by the digestive action of the larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei. The larvae are deliberately introduced to the cheese, promoting an advanced level of fermentation and breaking down of the cheese's fats. The texture of the cheese becomes very soft - well it would, wouldn't it - with some liquid (called lagrima, from the Sardinian for "tears") seeping out. The larvae themselves appear as translucent white worms, about 8 millimetres (0.3...