[sjackso]

I once bought a piece of mimollete cheese on a lark. When I ate it later that day, I was extremely impressed by the rich and nutty flavor, and wondered how I had reached adulthood without knowing about something so delicious.

So I looked it up on wikipedia. And learned about the mites.

When I looked closely at the rind of the the cheese I'd bought-- sure enough, it was busy with tiny, transparent crawlies.

I still like mimolette, but there's something in the back of my brain that cannot forget the mites. The innocent bliss of that first experience is impossible to recapture.

[sneak]

I don't think the mites are able to penetrate to the inside, as mimolette is quite hard (I prefer the extra old). I don't eat the rind, myself.

It's my favorite cheese. It's as if three year sharp cheddar and proper Parmigiano Reggiano had a delicious, sharp, salty baby that comes apart with the flaky dry texture of mica almost.

[GuiA]

You have similar mites living on your face too.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/21/7250878...

[Retric]

Human mites are up to 0.016in while cheese mites can be about twice that size 0.028in making them much easier to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodex_folliculorum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrophagus_casei

[sjackso]

Yes, illogical though it be, the fact that my eyelash dust might be motile bothers me less than seeing live arachnids in my food.

[shagie]

This reminds me of the Think Geek flavor of the day desk calendar back in 2016. https://youtu.be/zAV8m1mH4uI

The punch line for it is casu marzu.

While cheese mites are 0.45–0.70mm, the offspring of Piophila casei are about 8mm long.

The wikipedia page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu which goes into some of the intricacies needed in the "consumption" section.

[toomanybeersies]

Speaking of disgusting delicacies with strange methods of preparation/consumption, in Sweden they eat Surströmming, which is a canned fish that's been fermented in a relatively light brine, and is so pungent it is often opened submerged in a bucket of water to avoid the smell and brine shooting out of the tin when pierced (it continues to ferment in the can, so if it's opened incorrectly it will spray out brine)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

[dghughes]

For some reason I feel could accept insects on food but mites are arachnids and it just seems icky to eat arachnids.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Your face is crawling with mites. Sleep on that.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Lol, just to make you sleep better: https://scottolewiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/eyelash...

[meowface]

Eh, not that weird looking. They look like they could be tiny mammals. Just with strange eyes.

[catalogia]

That's pretty cute to be honest.

[hombre_fatal]

It can have my sebum for all I care. It doesn't even poop apparently.

I've had worse critters along for the ride.

[hn_throwaway_99]

After reading your comment I did some research, and you're right, they don't have anuses, so they just store all their poop in their abdomens until they die, when they decompose and release that poop all at once. So there's that to look forward to.

[082349872349872]

"Mark Twain" had a posthumously published essay in which God points out that, just as one builds a boarding-house for the benefit of its boarders and not of the building, man was created for the benefit of his microbial population.

[dTal]

They look a little like tardigrades.