Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Holy Grail of cheese

That would be Murray's, in Greenwich Village, NYC. For those that live locally, it's a bit like Zingerman's, only way more cheese! What a wonderful place! We spent over an hour in there, ogling and tasting cheese. The people that work there are as knowledgeable and passionate about cheese as, well, we are about beer. (And are trying to be about cheese.) Which is why we were there. You can taste to your heart's content.
After tasting about 10 cheeses we settled on the following (keeping in mind that we had to bring all the cheese back with us on the plane later that day).....
Red Leicester - Sparkenhoe Farm , UK. A raw milk, cloth bound, cow's milk cheddar with a grassy, minerally flavour. Fantastic with Mr Cicerone's IPA.
Sottocenere - Northern Italian cow's milk, semi-soft cheese infused with black truffle, with a rind coated in nutmeg, cinnamon, fennel, licorice and clove. (Skip the rind, eat the paste!!). Oh my. The ever-so-luscious truffle, in any form, has me grasping (and gasping) for more. Mr Cicerone's Irish Stout was really good with this cheese! I ended up using the remainder in a linguine-with-walnuts dish, and it was great!
Tilsiter - this particular cheese is from Austria., thought the original is from Switzerland. It's a funky, stinky, washed-rind cow's milk, and Aventinus was fantastic with it.
Weinkase Lagrein - it's Northern Italian! It's a cow's milk soaked in wine and herbs, garlic & pepper. 6 weeks later you have a cheese that incorporates all these flavours, especially the garlic! It has a strong, unusual, garlicky flavour. Aventinus was also good with this cheese, as was Mr Cicerone's Batch 300 rye barley wine. If we can find this cheese locally we will be making a batch of macaroni & cheese with it, for sure!
Mimolette - from Normandy, aged 22 months. Wow. More, please! A dark orange, hard cheese with some similarities to an aged gouda, though it's more fruity and less caramelly. I tried this with, not Calvados as recommended by Murray's, but Etienne Dupont's  Pommeau de Normandie, a blend of Calvados & cider. (We have some in our fridge.) Perfect!

1 comment:

  1. Jeff and Susan recommend the Neal's Yard Dairy by Boroughs Market in London. The Market is its own destination for foodies. The Market Porter Pub is right there too!

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