(no subject)
I did a new years party at my house this year. Just a few friends (five of us total), several pounds of cheese, many varieties of bread, and three bottles of alcohol. Also fruit, chocolate, prociutto, and smoked salmon. The alcohol and salmon were all courtesy of my sister, whose job provides her with so much holiday boodle that she has to give some of it away.
The cheeses were:
Brunet, a soft, bloomy goat cheese from Italy. Hey, there's a cheese-mistress on LJ! Here is what she has to say about this cheese. Spot on.
I have written before about the joy of Mt. Tam. My most common descriptor for it is "sex on a plate." So for the party I bought Cowgirl Creamery's washed-rind triple-creme, Red Hawk. This would be "kinky sex on a plate." Smooth and creamy and delicious, but with a sharp kick that makes it even better.
I got a fresh Piedmont-variety robiola, which went amazingly with the salmon. It's like a very soft cream cheese, only tasty. (I hate cream cheese. This, I liked.) Smooth and almost creme fraiche-like, not salty (and therefore paired well with the salty fish).
A Tomme de Savoie which was at the perfect ripeness. Sweet and smooth. Shizu pronounced it to be bland like Swiss cheese, but I have long said her taste buds are dulled by too much spicy food. Swiss cheese is icky; I dislike the slight bitterness that underrides the overwhelming nuttiness, and too often it has a funny texture that squeaks on the teeth. This tomme was melty and delicate and buttery.
Fleur du Maquis, which I have talked about before, here. This might possibly be the world's most perfect action cheese, in the way that Die Hard is possibly the most perfect action movie. It has everything you want in cheese: variety of texture, depth of flavor, consistency of quality. Yes, often I want the melodrama of a triple-creme, but when I just want a cheese that tastes amazing and unlike any other cheese, this is the one to go to.
Midnight Moon, a wonderful goat milk gouda. It's very gouda-like, but somewhat harder and saltier. Yum.
The cheeses were:
Brunet, a soft, bloomy goat cheese from Italy. Hey, there's a cheese-mistress on LJ! Here is what she has to say about this cheese. Spot on.
I have written before about the joy of Mt. Tam. My most common descriptor for it is "sex on a plate." So for the party I bought Cowgirl Creamery's washed-rind triple-creme, Red Hawk. This would be "kinky sex on a plate." Smooth and creamy and delicious, but with a sharp kick that makes it even better.
I got a fresh Piedmont-variety robiola, which went amazingly with the salmon. It's like a very soft cream cheese, only tasty. (I hate cream cheese. This, I liked.) Smooth and almost creme fraiche-like, not salty (and therefore paired well with the salty fish).
A Tomme de Savoie which was at the perfect ripeness. Sweet and smooth. Shizu pronounced it to be bland like Swiss cheese, but I have long said her taste buds are dulled by too much spicy food. Swiss cheese is icky; I dislike the slight bitterness that underrides the overwhelming nuttiness, and too often it has a funny texture that squeaks on the teeth. This tomme was melty and delicate and buttery.
Fleur du Maquis, which I have talked about before, here. This might possibly be the world's most perfect action cheese, in the way that Die Hard is possibly the most perfect action movie. It has everything you want in cheese: variety of texture, depth of flavor, consistency of quality. Yes, often I want the melodrama of a triple-creme, but when I just want a cheese that tastes amazing and unlike any other cheese, this is the one to go to.
Midnight Moon, a wonderful goat milk gouda. It's very gouda-like, but somewhat harder and saltier. Yum.