Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Meadow Creek Mountaineer & Herve Mons Le Chartreux

Meadow Creek Mountaineer
Comes from: cows
Purchased at: Whole Foods
$14.99/lb

Herve Mons Le Chartreux
Comes from: cows
Purchased at: Whole Foods
$29.99/lb

So neither of these cheeses was really my Favorite Cheese Ever. The Meadow Creek had a vaguely foot-ish scent, a sort of horseradishy sour flavor to the rhindy bits, but overall had just a totally mild almost acidic taste, which is, well, I mean, I've said before that I suck at mild flavors. A moist cheese, sort of palate-sticky, like muenster but a tad wetter. Think this one or this one or this one. (The flavor of the cheese was *extremely* familiar, actually, and I could've sworn I'd had it before, but of those four I can't narrow it down. Which says something about my writing skills. DESCRIBING FOOD IS HARD.)

Herve Le Mons Chartreux, you'll notice, cost twice as much as the other cheese, and sometimes I guess that means something, in that I liked it better; it had a more powerful taste, more of a bite, was a little drier, but still wasn't anything near parmesan in texture or fragmentability. You know, how some cheese fragment and some just bend? This one compromises. If that is at all possible.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

WaWa Cheddar, Pecorino Tartufello, Hollandaise Chevre Goat, and Gruyere Grand Cru Surchoix.

WaWa Cheddar
Comes from: cows, probably
$3.99/10 oz
Purchased at: WaWa, 'natch

Pecorino Tartufello
Comes from: sheep
$29.99/lb
Purchased at: Whole Foods

Hollandse Chevre Goat Cheese
Comes from: goats
$13.99/lb
Purchased at: Whole Foods

Gruyere Grand Cru Surchoix
Comes from: cows
$18.99/lb
Purchased at: Whole Foods

You know, I think it's just that I was (am) exhausted/pissed/drunk but none of these cheeses impressed me all that much. I mean, the WaWa cheddar was clearly the weak link; I guess the good thing about eating expensive cheese all the time is that now I shrug at cheese sticks and cheese bricks (except when it's 2 AM and only WaWa is open). WaWa cheddar: Kind of tasteless. Moving on.

The pecorino tartuffo was interesting, seriously interesting, and I think I'd buy it and gladly for a dinner party. It's strong in flavor, like a pecorino, but the texture... I'm going with "bendable" but also "feta-like." Maybe if you took a bunch of feta and squeezed it all together so it wasn't so much crumbly as rubbery, but the good kind of rubbery? But still sort of sandy-dry on the tongue like feta is? That's this cheese.

And then the Hollandse Chevre. A good strong goaty flavor but still and all the bite is too smooth and, eh, I don't know, it just didn't strike me as anything special. For what it's worth.


Annnd finally we come to the Gruyere Grand Cru Surchoix, which is, I'm told, gruyere-like; it's just, meh, not anything special. For me.

Incidentally, I bought some Mount Tam earlier, because I liked it the last time, and it was good, though I guess it didn't impress me as much, either. So maybe someone has just destroyed my cheese-receptors this week.

(That someone is BOOZE.)

(Oh, holy shit, I *haven't* mentioned Mt Tam here? Really? Because I thought I had. Um, really? Not even... New Orleans? Didn't I eat Mt Tam in New Orleans? No, apparently not... Shit. Well, Mt Tam is a very good, creamy, brie-like cheese, and we all know that butterfat + me = happy, so I like it a lot. That is Mt Tam.)