The 2010 cheese event at the National Geographic was called ‘Come to Cheeses’. The speakers were Steve Jenkins, Www Xxx, and Yyy Zzz. Steve gave a nice talk on each of the cheeses, and the other speakers extolled the virtues of their beer and wine.
Cheese at Dino’s
Buffalo mozzarello
Bartagnoli Pecorino Taula
milk: Italian sheep
Bartagnoli Pecorino Taula
milk: Italian sheep
Fontina Val D’Aosta Appennina
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Asiago Vecchio
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Gorgonzola Staglionato
milk: Italian cow
Guffanti Eborianato di Pecora con Milele
milk: Italian sheep
This is tonight’s selection of cheese from Dino, a local Italian restaurant. They extended Restaurant Week until Sept. 13th. Additionally, they had a “No Corkage Fee” tonight, plus they gave us limoncello at the end of dinner. The service was great, being attentive though not annoying.
DC 2009 Beer and Cheese Week
It’s Beer week in DC, and we thought about attending a cheese/beer tasting at Cafe StEx. They were featuring Brooklyn Beer (a favorite of TT and I) and Cowgirl Creamery cheese. We’ve mentioned free tastings before and we were up to checking out the bar. Last night we discovered it would cost $20 each, and so between the time and money, we could create our own DC beer week…and so we did.
I walked over to Cowgirl after work with ideas of what to buy in hand. I tried many and ended up with 4 (at least 2 more than planned). The “cow” cheese ended up being the Bellwether Farms’ Carmoday from Sonoma but made from Jersey milk. It’s “a firm cow milk cheese with buttery intensity.” I moved to the “sheep” cheese next, and picked another from Bellwether Farms. Pepato is a cheese with peppercorns in it, and is salty like a Manchego with the spice of the pepper. Finally, I was convinced to round out my cheese plate with a “goat” cheese. Midnight Moon is essentially a Gouda from Holland. The Goat is not overwhelming so W and I agree it’s good.
Not so finally, I was there, and the infamous Pt. Reyes blue was there, so I was “forced” to buy the standard quarter pound. This year has a slightly different flavor, as it’s a bit more harsh. We’ve learned though, different seasons produce different cheese. Maybe we should just buy 3 pounds of it every winter. The Buttermilk Blue from Wisconsin is in the running for “Top Blue” cheese these days but I’m told the Pt. Reyes has a Reserve (we are yet to find or taste).
Tonight’s cheeses were great all around and are suggested if looking for a variety of cheeses that have good flavor and are not overwhelming. Oh…and Pumpkin beer is already out in select stores, so buy it while you can!
new cheesemonger in Alexandria
The new cheese store in Alexandria opened recently. It is La Fromagerie, about half way between US1 and the metro stop.
Zamorano
milk: Spanish sheep
Very much like Manchego, but aged longer and thus a bit harder.
Buttermilk Blue
milk: Wisconsin Jersey and Holstien cows
maker:Roth Kase
A very good blue cheese. MS said it was second to Pt. Reyes Blue. It was winner of the American Cheese Society “Best of Show” award in 1999.
The last of our Valley Shepherd
My sheep cheese that I made at Valley Shepherd finally arrived! We all (at, wt, ms, na, a?) thought it was very good. It was not as firm as some of the other wheels, and a bit more earthy than the others.
Fairway’s Pub & Grill at KPTW
If you are passing through the Philidalphia area and need food, don’t hesitate to stop in at Pottstown Limerick, KPTW. The Fairway’s Pub & Grill (610-495-7626) is a few hundred yards up the road from the FBO, but don’t let the name fool you. Yes, it is a ‘pub & grill’, but Marty, the chef, makes up daily specials depending on what he was able to buy at the farmer’s market that morning.
We had crab cakes, which is one of Marty’s own special recipies. They were great! In fact, we had a nice conversation with him. He gave us his cell phone number, and said to call the next time we were flying in and he would prepare something special for us.
This guy owns a bar & grill, is the chef at the place, which is across the street from an airport (outside of the SFRA). What a dream job!.
Sheep & Wool 2009
The Maryland Sheep & Wool festival this year was again very good. We went on Saturday, and there were a zillion people there. It didn’t rain, and thus was very nice. We found out that the cheesemonger that used to show up (Menhennet) has been replaced by Everona. We go there at 1pm on Saturday, and they had already old out of most of what they had brought, so we didn’t get any of their blues.
Smokey Piedmont
We’ve had their Piedmont before, so this was our chance to check out their smoked version. It was very good. (10/27/2010 update: I bought some Smoked Piedmont again at the Crystal City Farmer’s Market but over til next season. Once again, we liked it – went will with some fresh pears; easy to eat in your hand.)
Shenandoah
A milder sheep milk cheese, which was also very good.
Understanding the living foods we eat
The evening at the Science Museum was very interesting. The speaker, Dr. Catherine Donnelly, is a Professor of Cheese (well, actually ‘Professor of Nutrition and Food Science’) at the U. of Vermont. Her talk was quite technical. There is a law that you can’t sell cheese made from raw milk unless it has been aged for at least 60 days. Her talk was mostly about this law, and the papers and experiments that have been done on it: where bacteria in cheese comes from, what kind of pathogens survive past 60 days, how to detect Listeria in food, and a lot of other stuff about microbiological safety of raw-milk cheese. There were some pictures, and a few charts and graphs. But really, it was very interesting.
She is also a founder of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese.
And then we ate cheese: Mt Tam (Calif.), Montgomery’s Cheddar (England), Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (Vt.), Comte Reserve (France; we had a Comte at one of the Burlington tastings), Parmigiano-Reggiano (Italy), and Baley Hazen Blue (Vt). All of it cow.
cheese from feast!
We finally got a chance to stop by feast!, a cheese shop in Charlottesville, VA, and what a shop it was! The proprieter, Kate, was very knowledgeable and helpful on choosing the right cheese. We wanted local cheeses, and had the usual criteria: one brie/triple-cream, some sheep, and not much goat. Well, Kate certainly supplied us with what we wanted, and we ended up with this:
Delice de Bourgogne
milk: French cow
a very nice triple-creme cheese
Everona Piedmont
milk: Virginia cow
Grayson
Meadow Creek Dairy
milk: Virginia sheep
Very smelly. Did not get better with age. Creamy texture.
McClure
milk: Virginia cow
type: similar to Tallegio
Yes, very much like Tallegio (very smelly). NA liked this a lot.
Roaring 40’s blue
milk: Austrailian cow
Angela & Ken’s B-day
We drove to Burlington for the January birthdays (Angela and Ken). We stopped by Harris-Teeter, which has a good selection of cheese (for a grocery store), and got Manchego (of course), and a blue that we hadn’t seen before.
Butter
Angela gave me a “cookbook” for Christmas, The Home Creamery, by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. It describes how to make butter from whole cream, which we did, and it was delicious!
Goat Brie
Angela got this at Brookville in Cleveland Park. It was a hit, and everyone (but me) liked it. Well, I thought it was very good for goat cheese(!).
Manchego
Always a favorite.
Amish Blue
Actually it was from Wisconsin, but was a good blue.