Tag: foodie
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Get Your Goat with Queso Ibores
One of the most frequent requests we receive at my cheese counter is for raw-milk goat cheese. While there are plenty of raw-milk options among our cow’s milk cheeses, there are ridiculously few options in the sheep-and-goat set. We recently brought in a cheese to help fill the void—and add a bit of color to…
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CSAs: A New Way to Get Cheesy
Step aside, grocery stores and online shopping. The CSA is here! You may already be familiar with the acronym CSA as it relates to fruits and vegetables. CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture,” and it is a way for folks to buy shares of a local farm’s harvest. Think of it as everyday people helping…
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10 Intimidating Cheese Names and How to Say Them
A specialty cheese counter can be an intimidating place. You walk up and are presented with 400 different types of cheese all sitting together, begging for your attention. If you don’t know what you want, it can be a struggle to pick something out from the multitude before you. (Luckily, that’s what cheesemongers are for—to…
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Can Dogs Eat Cheese?
Google search trends will tell you that pet owners aren’t sure whether to feed their cats and dogs a lot of things.[i] The reason for that is dogs, cats, and other animals metabolize foods differently than humans. So not everything that we love to eat is something they should eat, even if they seem to…
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What in Consternation is a Tomme?
Literature nerds may chuckle softly to themselves at the title question, “what in consternation is a Tomme?” Even the Oxford Companion to Cheese starts its explanation of the name with a reference to words: “The name most likely derived from the Greek word tomos or the Latin tomus, meaning a cut, slice, or section of…
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Tasting Notes: Métier Brewing Company Beers and Cheese
This year has wrought its share of terrible things, but one bright spot in the darkness is the beautiful foods that are still being produced for us to enjoy. Just as animals don’t stop producing milk, plants don’t stop growing and people don’t cease needing to eat—even when lives are threatened by a pandemic, social…
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How to Pair Cheese and Beer
The first beverage pairing that comes to mind for many cheese eaters is wine. But humans have been eating cheese with both wine and beer for a very long time. Humans started making cheese between 6500 and 6000 BCE.[i] Then they started making the oldest-known wines in 5980 BCE[ii] and the first beers around 5000…
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A Wisconsin Cheese Journey: Part 2
[This is a continuation of a three-part series on the Cheesemonger Invitational Winners’ trip to Wisconsin in October. You can read the first part here.] After two nights in Madison, I found myself charmed by Wisconsin. The landscape was not as boring as I imagined it would be, the people were friendlier and more open…
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The Non-Melting Cheese That Should Be a Staple in Your Kitchen
One of my favorite cheese puns is a joke about Halloumi: “What does cheese say when it looks in the mirror?” “Hallou-mi!” I’m not just a fan of this pun because it teaches you how to pronounce the name of a cheese that is obviously sassy and feeling itself, but also because it is about…
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Lost Peacock Creamery: From #ThatFarmLife to Fabulous Farmstead Cheese
In a recent post, I briefly explained the difference between artisanal and industrial cheeses. But among artisanal cheeses, there are also differences. There are cheeses that boast of being ‘farmstead’ cheeses, and there are those that are simply ‘artisan’ or ‘specialty.’ Artisan cheeses should be made by hand, or with as little help as possible…
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How to Tell if a Cheese is for Cooking or Just Eating
Here’s a conversation that happens at least once every hour at the cheese counter: Cheesemonger: “Let me know if I can answer any questions for you.” Customer: “Yeah, I’m looking for a cheese that will go well on crackers.” Cheesemonger: “Well, you’ve come to the right place. Everything you see is good with crackers.” [Customer…
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What It’s Like Competing in the Cheesemonger Olympics
Last month, on January 13 and 14, I competed in the olympics of cheesemongering. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen posts about the Cheesemonger Invitational (#cmisf). The invitational usually happens twice a year, during the Fancy Food Show. The winter edition is in San Francisco in January, and the…
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A Resolution for 2019 That We Can All Do
It’s that time again: out with the old, in with the new; a fresh start; a renewed sense of [insert deep internal need/desire here]; time to lose weight, get more sleep, be more productive, and do it all. Did someone say “New Year’s resolution?” Now, I don’t know too many people who actually set New…
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8 Weeks of Celebration Cheeses: Week 8
We have made it to the end of my “8 Weeks of Celebration Cheeses” series—and subsequently to the end of 2018. If, like me, you are scratching your head and wondering where the time went, just know that it tends to fly when you are having fun—as you should be when cheese is a part…
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The 12 Days of Cheesemas
[Originally published on December 18, 2016; revised December 12, 2017.] In honor of the holiday season that surrounds us, I give you the gift of poetry and music. Tomorrow is the twelfth day of Cheesemas. If you have not yet gotten all of your Christmas cheese together, I hope you will take inspiration from this…