i can’t believe i didn’t post this earlier… i’ve been grossing out over it all week. this is from thesneeze.com (“half zine. half blog. half not good with fractions”, a site with witty quips like “cookies are kinda like cake jerky”).
STEVE, DON’T EAT IT: steve taste-tests things that probably shouldn’t be taste-tested, and reports the results back to us. things like pickled pig skin, breast milk, Urkel-O’s cereal (“Fun, circle-shaped product. I had no idea circles were so fun. At least now I know what to get the kids next Christmas. A fucking circle.”)
and…
cuitlacoche: a fungus that infects corn fields, making kernels turn black and slimy and swell to enormous proportions. “I’ve read that U.S. farmers consider it a disease and destroy it. Farmers in Mexico put it in cans and sell it as a delicacy.”
so here is an actual photo of a can of cuitlacoche, unceremoniously dumped out onto a nice clean plate.
Steve says: “Don’t worry, I checked the ingredients before I tasted it. “Smoker’s lung” was not on there.
Before I even got the whole can open, I detected a vague aroma of sweet corn, along with what I can only describe as a deep musky funk. Put ‘em together and it smells like corn that forgot to wipe.”
Mike and I had it twice in Mexico a couple of months ago. We figured we’d never get another chance to try it.
It was actually really good. Kind of smoky, a little like black beans. I think the taste depends on how it’s prepared. It looked a lot better than your picture too. I doubt I could have tried it if it looked like that. :)