Rustico Red Pepper & Bel Paese Traditional

Rustico Red Pepper
Comes from: sheep
Purchased at: Whole Foods
$12.99/lb

Bel Paese Traditional
Comes from: cows
Purchased at: Whole Foods
$9.99/lb

So the Rustico. Smells vaguely sheepy but not overly so. Softer than muenster, though it holds its shape better than mozzarella. The peppery bits are large (relatively) and crunchy and surprisingly spicy, and the cheese itself is not too sheep-heavy. Overall, I think the pepper kinda overpowers the cheese flavor a bit too much -- and the cheese flavor, as I mentioned, is good and not sheep-y -- but it'd be a good cheese to cube and set out at a dinner party with a bunch of toothpicks. (Unless your guests are vegetarians, because this cheese? Also contains rennet!)

And the Bel Paese. Okay, first? The rind really is made of wax. DO NOT TRY TO EAT THE RIND. (On the other hand, this one is rennet-free, for all your cow-enslaving-but-not-killing buddies.) Smells... like... cardboard? First bite: Oooer-um. So... Okay, second bite... See, this cheese is... It doesn't taste like feet, as I feared at first, and in fact it tastes better the longer you push it up against your palate, though that could just be my tongue-cells dying... Also a softer cheese, this one; like the other, it holds its shape but you can crush it against your palate with minimal effort. It reminds me... a little of Robin Eggs, for no reason I can describe, and a little of regular muenster. This cheese is *confusing.* And, um, kinda bland overall. Not a party cheese, this cheese; I'd save it more for, um, baking. If I ever baked with cheese, I mean.

As a mini-review, Whole Foods had set out what I believe to be Unikaas something or other tonight, and for the second or third time I had a chunk and thought, Oh, this is *good.* But then there were no small sad single-person pieces, and so you got these reviews instead. Voila!