I know, it’s been a while between drinks and cheeses. I can give you many reasons including illness, hysteria and related dramas. But essentially a gal needed a break from the dairy overload. I will admit, I have been cheating on cheese with Asian flavors. But here I am, I am back with a vengeance. Last week I judged my outfit far too cute for just the office, so I rounded up some usual suspects for a wine and cheesefest at Opal by Gordon Ramsay at St Regis Doha. Meeting friends for the Thursday download and judgement session at the bar, Chef Elias whipped up this special pizza which featured…
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Making the World a Cheddar Place
They say that familiarity breeds contempt. This is perhaps why I always forget about cheddar as a legitimate contender in my own pantheon of great cheeses. I mean, it’s one of the first cheeses we come across in our lives. I remember cheddar cheese sandwiches on white bread as a child and learning to smother them in mustard. I also remember Saturday lunches, when after doing the shopping, Mum would fill the dining table with cold meats from the local deli, freshly slices tomatoes and of course, slices of cheddar. We would then make our own sandwiches on fluffy white rolls. I came across this cheddar Jones the Grocer, and…
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Never Get Feta Up With This Cheese
Ahhhh Feta. Not only is the sharp yet creamy taste something to savor, you can basically to anything with it – salads, sandwiches, stuff it into things (other food I mean you evil people), drizzle it with oil. Back at Grand Hyatt Muscat for the weekend, I managed to convince them to serve up one of my favorite breakfasts -feta, olive oil and tomato on bread. I’ve written of this before, but the cheese on this occasion was a kind of feta I haven’t come across before. It was firm yet creamy and you can see the ripple marks from the basket it was brined in. There was no comparison…
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Feeling Feta About It
What follows is a tale of greed, lust, violence and of course, cheese. It started innocently enough – three female friends having a quiet Thursday night dinner at our “local” restaurant Opal by Gordon Ramsay at St Regis Dohaafter a complex week in the vineyards of truth. I spend a lot of time at Opal, because it has simple and fabulous food, great staff and an outdoor terrace. It’s the closest place I have to a neighborhood brasserie. I know I can go there, have a terrific meal, a glass of wine and usually little drama. they also have a hard core commitment to cheese in all its form. It’s…
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All White on the Night
Sometimes a girl needs a home-cooked meal. And in the absence of a husband or even a knight in shining armor, basically anyone, that task often, okay always, falls to me. Last week, faced with a fridge full of cheese and a chicken breast, I had to get creative. In a not especially creative moment, I picked up some White Castello cheese at the supermarket. Castello is a brand name and its’ influence spreads around the globe. White Castello is a white blue cheese. It has the strong taste of blue, without the confronting veins. The cheese tself is a Danish White Mould full fat soft cheese. The consistency matures…
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Fromage to Eternity
As we slide (or stagger) into the business end of the year, I find myself looking for distractions. So when I got a message via the Twitter that went something along the lines of “We have a new menu Market at W Doha, there are 20 new items. There is lots of cheese”, I declare a “Distraction Action” and head westwards. And the Twitter doesn’t lie. The new menu has cheese. Lots of it. And other amazing things as well. Starting with these balls of deliciousness. Cheddar chilli fritters. Give me cheddar and add some green chilis then deep fry it? Yes please. This is what I like about cheddar,…
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Girl on Grill (Cheese) Action
There are very few things in life that cannot be improved by a good grilling – meat, men and democracy being ones that spring immediately to mind. And of course, cheese. A friend and colleague had brought back this cheese from Saudi Arabia for me. Yes, an Eastern European cheese bought in Riyadh and delivered to me in Doha. International yah? Kashkaval is a yellow cheese hailing from Eastern Europe, specifically Albania, Romania and related countries. It tastes similar to cheddar cheese, and this one was laced with cumin seeds, giving it a unique flavor. It can be made with sheep or cow milk and I suspect this one was…
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Standing to (A)Tentation
There comes a time in a woman’s life when it becomes her moral duty to break her self-enforced diet. For me, this came last week, when faced with the prospect of the monthly wine and cheese evening at St Regis Doha Prior experience had forewarned me – I can’t drink like I used to. But I can tell you, this healthy living period has not affected my cheese consumption. The team treated us to the usual selection of wines we can’t find elsewhere in Doha and two new cheeses for my benefit. The first was greeted with squeals of delight – Tentation. My friend Jen calls this “Spoon Cheese” after…
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Amongst Gouda Friends
Sometimes a gal just needs a home cooked meal. And thanks to my friend Ruth, I enjoyed a little taste of that when she whipped up a spicy treat of Chilli Crab and a Prawn Curry last night. But my end of the bargain, as always, was to bring the cheese. No wonder I get invited to a lot of dinners…hmmmm Still working my way through the cheese accumulated from my European trip, I brought along a Gouda from my friends at Wijngaard and Reypenaer in Amsterdam. This was from their specialty cheese range, which infuses other ingredients like herbs and truffles. The Affiné Zontomaat Bieslook (Affiné Cheese with Sun-Dried…
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You Had Me at Halloumi
The thing about diets is that you tend to eat a lot of salad. A. LOT. I’m 6kgs down and staring down the barrel of a another half a lifetime of lettuce and accompanying low cal pals. But the good thing about lettuce is that you can load it up, and this is one of my favorite salads, created by the chefs at the Grand Hyatt Doha This salad is so simple, yet I can never recreate it. Rocket leaves, fig, bresciola, walnuts, a simple dressing and of course the hero – grilled halloumi. Although it is of rather disputed origin due to the mixed cultures in the Levant and…