Entries tagged with 'cheese'
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Photograph courtesy of Beehive Dairy Most people, when they hear the words coffee and cheese in the same sentence, wince at the thought of two such vastly different foods coming in such close contact. But Utah's Beehive Dairy is boldly cutting straight through that taboo with their coffee-covered Barely Buzzed, a blue ribbon winner in the 2008 American Cheese Society Awards. The first time I'd tasted it was back in March at Beecher's Cheese in Seattle. As I bit down through the cheese, the bitter nuttiness of the espresso and the caramel sweetness of the cheddar-style cheese made me realize this is a match made in some really quirky and hip corner of heaven....
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Photograph from wili_hybrid on Flickr There was an article in last weekend's New York Times that I found utterly fascinating. In a memoir-style piece, author Jennifer Mascia described the epiphany she experienced when realizing that goat cheese had made it to her East Harlem supermarket. To her, this signaled that gentrification was truly taking hold. When I read the story, I wondered why goat cheese—a very basic, rustic food—has become so symbolic of "gourmet" food in America, specifically the gastronomic revolution that has taken place in the last 30 years. One could even argue that goat cheese is more indicative of gentrification than even the supremely-yuppified arugula....
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"It's not surprising that we're witnessing a cheesemaking resurgence of sorts in that part of the world." Photograph from dearanxiety on Flickr Last week, there was an interesting story from the McClatchy newspapers about a group of Italian agronomists helping some Palestinian farmers set up an Italian sheep cheese operation in the West Bank. The dairy goes by the name of Golden Sheep, and produces a small variety of Italian cheeses like pecorino (a generic term for an aged sheep cheese), smoked ricotta, and scamorza (a close relative of mozzarella). The economy in the West Bank is, for obvious reasons, relatively stagnant, and the agronomists at Italy's Ucodep have launched this development project to help get some money flowing. The...
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Stinky cheese lovers, rejoice! While the US had been threatening to impose a 300% tax on Roquefort cheese—in response to the EU’s refusal to import hormone-treated beef—that twice-delayed tariff is now off the table. Roquefort prices should stay safely where they are....
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Photograph courtesy of Cheeses of France Spring is naturally the season of new beginnings, and during these warm days rife with optimism, I like to think about all the wonderful things this season kicks off. Spring harvest, baseball, the first days of the rest of a college graduate's life, and of course the effective start of cheese season. In this third installment of Cheese 101 (we've already covered blues and Alpines), we take a detailed look at some of the best cheeses for spring—the aged goat cheeses—largely inspired by the "chèvres" of France's Loire Valley....
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Photograph from neoterra on Flickr Leave it to the French to spend their hard-earned tax dollars sponsoring wine and cheese parties here in the U.S and around the world. Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the French government, along with a handful of wine and cheese producers, is spending over $2 million to sponsor these parties in order to "show that French cuisine can be relaxed." If you want a chance to have the French pay you to throw a party, head on over to the contest form at houseparty.com. One thousand winners will get a 15 percent discount on certain French wines and receive a free gift when ordering French cheeses from specified websites. Okay, so...
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Editor's note: On Thursdays, Babbo pastry chef Gina DePalma checks in with Seriously Italian. After a stint in Rome, she's back in the States, channeling her inner Italian spirit via recipes and intel on delicious Italian eats. Take it away, Gina! Pecorino from Pienza tastes different from that made in Maremma, which is distinctive from what you find in Chianti, and so on. My mouth is watering for Pecorino Toscano this week, probably because I featured it in the dessert I prepared at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival last weekend. Not that I needed a reminder—we’ve always featured this DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta, or Protected Designation of Origin) sheep’s milk cheese on our menu at Babbo, and...
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"This is not really the same thing as the government subsidizing (i.e. naturally inflating) the cost of corn, or soybeans." Photograph courtesy of Grafton Village Cheese In these tough economic times, it must be difficult for companies to take the long view on things. Especially one like Grafton Village Cheese, larger than many small-scale artisan producers but still tiny compared to the struggling giants making news on Wall Street Journal covers. But by temporarily subsidizing the dairy farmers they rely on to produce their cheese, this small Vermont cheesemaking collective was in the news yesterday for doing just that. The price of milk, a commodity traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has fallen almost 40 percent in just one year...
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Photograph from katebornstein Your favorite cheese snack multiplied by your favorite nerdy wordy board game. Kellogg launched Cheez-It Scrabble Junior in January, and it's supposedly hitting shelves nationally. No clue why it refers to the munchkin version of the game, but it's still a good day to be a wordsmith with the munchies. [via Endless Simmer] Related Sudoku Pizza Do You Use Food-Related Words When You Scrabble? [Talk] Chocolate Scrabble...
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The day before I flew home from Seattle, I received an email from Tami Parr, author of the always-informative Pacific Northwest Cheese Project blog. She proudly announced the release of her first book, Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest. Oh, man, did I wish I'd had this book before going to Seattle. Largely a guidebook to the small-scale cheese producers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, the book is similar to Jeffrey Roberts' Atlas of American Cheese. It would be perfect for the intrepid agrotourist with a strong interest in cheese. For each producer profiled, Parr gives a brief one or two page summary, along with contact information, visitor information (if appropriate), and of course information about the cheeses...
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