Speaking of milk. . .

I've always had a fascination with some of the more curious items that we eat and drink, yet take for granted and do not even question the origin of such items.

Take milk for instance. You'd never see anyone run out into a pasture full of dairy cows, grab a teat and take a draw or two. However, put it in a plastic jug, label it and sell if for $3.99 a gallon and you've got something! Hey folks. . .it's juice from a cow's boob! A COW'S BOOB people! Think about it.

Or Honey. Otherwise known as regurgitated bee vomit. It's simple, bee goes to flower, drinks nectar, returns home, repeatedly vomits and swallows the liquid several times until it is puked up one last time and eventually stored in the honeycomb. Sounds lovely, right?

Potted Meat? Well, we all know what THAT is.

I was in a grocery store a few weeks ago in Houston, Texas and I came across some really tasty looking Mexican chorizo. Nice red color, lots of flecks of black pepper, I could even discern that it came in a real intestine instead of those weird casings that feel like paper and taste even worse. I was just about to drop it in the basket when I read the ingredients.

First item: Pork Salivary Glands

That was it! No more meat-type products to be found. Only benzoates and other random preservatives. Back on the shelf it went as I dawdled on down to the Pepperidge Farms, weird, paper wrapped sausage.

Good grief I thought. What the heck ever happened to mechanically separated pork or something of the sort. Make it obscure or abstract so I'll eat it. Being slapped in the face with pork salivary glands was just more than I could handle. I think I'd almost be happier with pig peckers or something. And really, does a salivary gland actually have any meat in it?

Here's a good one, truly extreme and of course just proves that humans really are animals. And I'll admit, it's not a common, taken for granted thing, but I just can't pass this one up.

Casu Marzu. What is that you might ask? Italian dessert? Nope. . .get ready for this one folks.

Casu marzu is cheese similar to pecorino that is allowed to rot to the point that cheese flies move in, colonize, demand equal rights, reproduce until the thing is one slimy, gooey, writhing mass of rotten cheese and living maggots. Well, throw it out, right? Grab a can of Raid and blast those little buggers first? Flamethrower? Nah, grab yourself a slice of crunchy Italian bread, spoon a heap on there and chow down, fly larvae and all. Yet, be very careful, these little dudes have the ability to leap several times their own length so eye protection is advised.

The cheese is illegal, considered an aphrodisiac and is highly prized in certain parts of Italy. There is even talk that some members of the Italian law enforcement community turn a blind eye and enjoy the delicacy too. Yum!