No, I’m not talking about the $75 per kilo camembert or the equally precious Stilton that only gets eaten when you get your TaX Refund (or a generous inheritance from Aunty Gracie when she finally decides to cark it).
What’s your favourite ‘everyday’ cheese…the stuff that you buy regularly and like me, sit here cutting huge swathes off it to shove in your mouth.
My preferred one is Maasdam . I can sit here all day chomping on a hunk of the stuff, and I buy about 700 gm per week, just for me!!. Luckily, my kids have more ‘basic’ tastes, and a lump of the 'matured tasty/ [read: old and tasteless] keeps them satisfied.
My preferred cheese to sit down and eat (that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg) is Helluva Good Washed Curd cheese.
My second favorite is Grafton Village 4-year Cheddar.
But, since I can’t get either of those in my local stores, I settle for Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp New York State Cheddar.
When I’m home in NYS, I eat the washed curd cheese everyday, and when I put in an order to Grafton Village I eat the 4-year cheddar 'til it’s gone, but otherwise, it’s the Cracker Barrel. Don’t get me wrong - it’s good, but not as good as the other two. And it’s teh only NYS Cheddar I’ve been able to locate in Mass.
Now, if you asked me about my favorie expensive cheeses, I could write volumes!
Although, it doesn’t even travel the titchy distance over the Irish Sea to Dublin, without losing that indefinable whateveritis, so you have no chance in the USA!
Any Lancastrians going to LonDope, please have pity on me and I will reward you with dubloons. Or at least, pounds of the sterling realm
My favorite everyday cheese used to be Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar. Unfortunately, after the move to da UP, I can’t find it. Luckily, there’s plenty of lovely aged Wisconsin cheddars around. Haven’t found a favorite yet, but I’m having fun trying 'em!
As far as floofy cheeses, my fav has got to be Explorateur, a triple cream brie. The damn stuff is 75% fat… it’s like butter with a slightly cheesy flavor. Eaten with champagne it’s divine. Of course, that’s not available anywhere around here, either.
St. Andre, a double cream brie, is available, and I’ve been eating buckets of that lately too.
My everyday cheese is sharp cheddar, especially Cabot’s. Cabot’s now has super-sharp cheddars in the supermarket that are sooo good. Plus, they’re inexpensive, often on sale and they put out coupons. Yay!
Manchego! It’s got a sort of buttery, nutty flavor – very good as a savory after meals or melted over sauteed chicken. You can get it at a Whole Foods (fka Fresh Fields) store, if you’ve got one near you, or a deli that sells European cheeses. (Don’t confuse Manchego with Manchego el Trigal, which is – I think – a more aged cheese that, IMO, has a slightly unpleasant flavor.)
Parrano, a Dutch (I believe) cheese that’s a blend of gouda and parmegiano, is also one of my favorites. I like to eat this plain or grate it into a cream sauce over pasta.
At the moment I am surviving on pretzels and Obazda which looks strange but is cheesy heaven. It’s basically mooshed up camembert and Limburg cheese with cream, onions and pepper.
Mmmmmmmhhhh…
Its has one drawback though, as the saying goes: Once on your lips, forever on your hips.
