Taking a Pont (L’Eveque)

Summer has well and truly enveloped the Gulf region.

I know this for several reasons:

1. It’s really hot. Like 46 degrees hot. Hotter than Satan’s private beach hot.

2. It is so hot it’s that time of year when expats take photos of the temperature readouts in their car and post them on Facebook/Twitter/everywhere

3. There is no traffic in Doha

4. I feel perpetually sniffly because of the Baltic air conditioning in buildings

5. There is a brisk trade in swapping and “borrowing” of the latest box sets and illegal film and series downloads among friends. It’s summer. It’s 46 degrees. What you gonna do?

6. I get what I call the “Summer Blues” – a general feeling of “meh” many expats and others get during this slower period which is usually coupled with the realization that yes, holly heatwave Batman! It’s JUNE.

Cheese always makes me feel better. So thanks to my friends at W Doha who sent over this care package on a recent visit.

Along with the usual suspects, there was a little gem – Pont-l’Évêque

Pont-l’Évêque is a French cheese, originally manufactured in the area around the commune of Pont-l’Évêque, between Deauville and Lisieux in the Calvados département of Basse-Normandie. It is probably the oldest Norman cheese still in production.

The central pâte of the cheese is soft, creamy pale yellow in colur with a smooth, fine texture and has a pungent aroma for such a mild looking cheese.

This is surrounded by a washed rind that is white with a gentle orange-brown coloration. It is generally ranked alongside Brie, Camembert, and Roquefort as one of the most popular cheeses in France.

And this little number really hit the spot for me. Summer blues? Says who?