Braying Power – Donkey Cheese Goes Global People who know me know tennis almost rivals cheese in my affections. So when I saw this story, I saw my two great loves (and Novak Djokovic) meld. I see a trip to Serbia on the cards in 2013…
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It’s Emmental My Dear Watson…
A friend reminded me this week that I had better get a wriggle on if I am going to try 365 cheeses in 365 days. This inspired two desperation buys this week. The first, Emmental aka the old favorite Swiss cheese. And just like the Swiss, it is mild, non offensive and just a little bit boring. Apparently three types of bacteria are used to produce this cheese, you would think that at least one of them would leave an impression? This one had already been massacred by the industrial cheese slicer at Carrefour and something may have been lost in translation. I tend to like my cheeses to be…
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Comte As You Are
As I type this, I am watching a “One Night Only” Duran Duran special on TV. Amazingly, they have aged quite well, Simon, admittedly wearing a rather flattering leather jacket, seems to move as well as he did in the 1980s and is still endearingly out of tune. The other members still look a bit of all right too, I’m unsure of how much of their performance and current looks are wind assisted, but this didn’t affect my nostalgic moment. I knew all the words to the songs, except that weird later period around A View to a Kill, when they got all artsy and their all did “side projects”…
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Was it Gouda For You Too?
I have to be honest with you, I may have met a cheese I do not like. Gouda cheese is so harmless it’s almost, well, offensive. /p> I decided to give it another try, buying some pre-sliced Gouda from my local French supermarket. Even on a white plastic tray, covered in cling film, it looks bloody boring. apparently the cheese is dried for a few days before being encased in the wax it is famous for. Depending on age classification, it can be aged a number of weeks to over seven years before it is ready to be eaten. As it ages, it develops a caramel sweetness and sometimes has…
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If You Leave Brie, Can I Come Too?
I’m an expat and have been for some time now. It doesn’t define me as such, but it’s an important part of my life and will be for a long time. There are some great things about being an expat – no tax, travel, decent wages. But the downsides are homesickness, frustration with bureaucracy….and seeing important people in your life leave. It happens, in expat land, nothing is forever. We are all guests in our country and as always, there will be another opportunity in another country. The thing about expat friendships and relationships is that they develop fast and strong, kind of like the uncertainty of our lives fuels…
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Taleggio Tales But True – A Hunk of Italian Love
It had been a particularly brutal day of toil in the vineyard of truth, and all that would salve my wounded soul was the thought of the Italian hunk sitting at home. By hunk, I do not mean in the literal studly sense, rather a hunk of Italian Taleggio cheese, purloined from the good people at Jones the Grocer in Doha. And so my tour of European basket case countries continues. I am a latecomer to the cult of Taleggio, having aligned myself early on in my cheese loving career with the Francophiles…Francophones….or whatever the kids are calling it now. But, like a persistent Italian man, it won my appreciation.…
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The Rouquefort Files
Time to enter my blue period. Roquefort is perhaps the “entry level” cheese for many of us. A non-controversial addition to cheese plates around the globe. I also find it’s one of the most abused cheeses, served far too cold to be enjoyed. This was, I think the first blue veined cheese I ever tried, and although not one of my favorites (that’s reserved for Stilton and Gorgonzola), there is always a hunk of it in my ridge. Traditionally, Roquefort is a sheep milk cheese, and in Euro fashion, apparently only those cheeses made in Roquefort Sul-Soulzon can called themselves”roquefort”. I bought my hunk from our loca French megastore and…
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Feta the Devil You Know
Say what you want about the Greeks, they do two things really well – cheese and anarchy. I have always admired the Greeks for their ability to enjoy life, create amazing food and manage to plunge their country into widespread chaos at the flick of a switch. I last visited Greece in the 1990s, when the Drachma was its currency, an older Papandreou was PM and they weren’t beholden to Germany to pay their bills. I haven’t been back since, but I still remember the food – simply cooked, lots of lemon, olive oil and salty cheese – all served with their typical (sometimes dark) sense of humor. When my…
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Shopska Til You Dropska
I never wanted to lead a boring life, which is why I like to travel so much. But, while I love experiencing new cities and destinations, the process of traveling fills me with untold angst. I am a worrier at the best of times, but add travel, flights and other unpredictable events into the mix, and I become a tangle of fear and loathing. That said, I never pass up the opportunity to experience a new destination, so when Qatar Airways invited me to Sofia last weekend, the bags were packed in record time. The lead time was short, not giving me much time to worry. Sofia and other Eastern…
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Romy With a View aka Eating Cheese Like an Egyptian
Egypt is known for many things – the pyramids, the Pharaohs, the Nile and dodgy souvenirs. It’s not necessarily known for it’s cheeses. But, there is evidence of the ancient Egyptians making cheese more than 4000 years ago. So it is true, the ancient Egyptians invented everything…even cheese. This said, I was more than a little excited when checking into my hotel, the Four Seasons First Residence in Cairo this weekend, to discover a cheese platter complete with a sample of Romy, also known as “Egyptian Parmesan”. In Egypt and Middle East people know this cheese as Romy Cheese or Gebnah Romy while in Alexandria it is known as gebnah…