Carine06This just felt like the most appropriate photo of Djokovic to use, somehow.
The most expensive cheese in the world comes from a donkey farm in Zasavica, Serbia. About 100 donkeys live on the farm, and they’re milked three times daily. While in normal cheesemaking a pound of cheese requires about a gallon of milk to make, it takes more than three gallons of donkey milk to make a pound of this donkey cheese. And that pound of donkey cheese costs about $500.
“Aha,” you say, “luckily I am a rich idiot with a powerful hunger for donkey cheese!” Well, buster, if you want any you’ll have to go through Novak Djokovic, ranked No. 1 in men’s tennis singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The best men’s tennis player in the world has bought up all of the donkey cheese. Every single last bit of it.
Djokovic, who comes from Serbia, is opening up a new chain of restaurants in his home country. The menu will feature donkey cheese (also called pule), and to ensure a steady supply, the tennis star just went ahead and commandeered the donkey farm’s entire supply.
At least, he says it’s for a restaurant. But donkey milk supposedly has some secret powers. According to the Telegraph:
Donkey milk is said to be very healthy for humans as it has anti-allergen properties, contains only one per cent milk fat, and is drunk only fresh because precious ingredients get lost if boiled.
One of these is vitamin C, which is present in donkey milk in 60 times larger quantities compared to cows’ milk.
Cleopatra used to bathe in this stuff. A cheese bath sounds grosser, but maybe it would still impart ancient Egyptian beauty secrets? At $500 per gallon, the 30 gallons of cheese Djokovic would need to fill up a bathtub would run to $15,000. Worth it.
