Con Pane's "Almost Grilled Cheese" ($4.35 for a half; $6.75 for the whole) relies on three basic ingredients: triple cream French brie, crumbled gorgonzola, and rosemary olive oil bread. Instead of being pan-fried in butter as with many grilled cheese sandwiches, it's oven-roasted, which warms the cheeses and delicately toasts the bread. Fresh roma tomatoes are an optional extra, but let's be honest—they're a must because they take the edge off the cheese and add a much needed note of sweetness. More

I'd like to talk about some good cheeses done wrong—cheeses that have had their reputation spoiled by mass-market, lowest-common-denominator clones. Here are some tastier, more interesting alternatives for the same ol' cheddar, brie, and blue. More

"This would be a great cheese to pick up for last-minute, run-to-the-supermarket-before-it-closes style of entertaining." Photograph by Jamie Forrest Président Cheese, makers of the ubiquitous wheels of "deli" brie, have released a new cheese they're calling the "Brie Log." They claim it has the same taste as their normal brie but comes in a convenient log shape with a 1-inch diameter, which means that its slices fit perfectly on crackers or bread rounds. A cool and interesting twist on an old classic, but how does it stack up? The folks from Président sent me a log last week, just before Thanksgiving. It arrived at my office frozen in a cooler pack and enclosed in a sealed wrapper. The whole thing... More