Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Petit Aveu (Little Confession for anglos)

The true mark of a fine cheese.

Blue cheese fanatic with the good fortune of having a Whole Foods just two blocks from home. Some favorites:

Maytag Blue - The appliance king was a Roquefort fan & wanted to recreate it back home.

Port Reyes Blue - Best way to describe it is..."clean". Creamy, but not too much, Has a kick, but not too much.

Valdeon - Spanish blue. My favorite cheese in the world. Not as strong as Cabrales, not as salty as...oh hell, I can't remember the other Spanish blue I tried. Everyone I've given this cheese to has gone nuts for it. I eat it on little toasts with a nice medium red (preferably Spanish).

Not a blue:

A good Manchego is always a nice snack cheese.

Gruyere - Great all purpose cheese. Goes well with anything. Add some on top of a pizza sometimes or just eat it plain.

Parmagiano Reggiano - The king of cheeses. 'Nuff Said!

Keen's Cheddar - A great British cheese.

A few years ago I was stuck in Fayetteville, Ark. for an extended time on a big project. Fortunately, the food there was surprisingly excellent, but also every Thursday was frmer's market day in the town square and there was a local farm that produced a lot of different goat cheeses. These were all excellent (typical goats, gouda, feta).

Personally, I like all types of cheeses except for the runny French ones. The smell & texture are just too much for me.

There is a Norweigen one called Geiteist (I'm sure I am spelling it wrong) that is pretty good.

I have total Whole Foods envy - I don't get there very much but when I do we're happy for weeks! That's the only place I've tried Spanish cheeses, and you're right, they're excellent! We do have a neat option with Alex's Farms - they'll take your cheese order and send it up north on the next Greyhound bus!! Isn't that great?

Asiago - divine with beef carpaccio and a great little olive oil we discovered when Williams Sonoma burst north of the 49th parallel. That combination is overwhelmingly rich and divine. (Of course, eating any food raw this far north is living on the edge, but no weird worms yet!)

I love that Dubliner cheese! My other two fav. Irish cheeses are Gubbeen and Mileens (now that's just fun to say!) which are creamy and so distinctive tasting.

Mmmmm reminds me of our morning brunch yesterday.
Asiago, mixed into a scrambled egg fry with sharp extra aged cheddar, a touch of salt pork, bacon, sweet purple Spanish onions served on buttered, fresh 3 grain (Red River) bread followed by fluffy waffles, strawberries and real whipped cream along with a small glass of Scheurebe Auslese.
The Scheurebe has overtones in the bouquet of urine but the flavour of this German wine tastes like a late harvest Vidal. It's all crazy.

In reply to:

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scrambled egg fry with sharp extra aged cheddar, a touch of salt pork, bacon, sweet purple Spanish onions served on buttered, fresh 3 grain (Red River) bread followed by fluffy waffles, strawberries and real whipped cream

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man... i just had a few slices of leftover pizza for breakfast on sunday.. seems like i got the wrong end of the deal..?

bigjohn

BJ, you left out the Asiago. It was the Asiago that brought it all together.
Tell him Amie.
You just can't have a good scrambled fry without Asiago and sharp, extra aged cheddar (Wisconsin or not).

there ya go chess... rub it in a little more..

at least the pizza had some mozzarella on it.

bigjohn

Add on a little crumbled goat's cheese next time BJ. Along with some olives and you've got the nice 'greek' style pie.
Mmm, tasty.
A sprinkling of Romano couldn't hurt either.
Consume with a clear light beer.

Hi,

I'm late getting into the cheese thread, but one of my favorites is an Italian called (usually) Mascarpone Torta. "Torta" means layered cake, so it's alternating layers of Mascarpone with Gorgonzola. Must be eaten at room temperature. Some cheese shops just refer to it as "torta". With others you have to describe what's in it.

In the stinky but great category is a German cheese called "Bierkase." Not certain of the spelling.

Regards,