The awesomeness of cheese
So I'm sitting here trying to get some work done, and the phone rings. I pick it up and my daughter is on the other end, calling me to say she's eating a fruit and cheese plate for lunch.
"Can we talk about the awesomeness of cheese for a moment?" she asks.
Uh, no. On deadline here.
This is going to be a great blog entry, she insists. Cheese is a no-brainer. It's the kind of topic you can throw out there when you're on vacation and say, "discuss."
"How about a Top 10 Baltimore cheese shops?" she asks.
"We don't have 10 cheese shops," I say.
I don't want to be dismissive, so I add, "We did do Top 10 Cheese Plates."
Dead silence on the other end of the line.
"You have been doing that blog a long time."
(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)
Comments
not even wensleydale?
Posted by: unbelievaboh | November 6, 2009 12:51 PM
Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
Posted by: Jean de La FONTaine | November 6, 2009 1:27 PM
thanks, fan!
Posted by: unbelievaboh | November 6, 2009 1:29 PM
cheese is the beatles of food.
Posted by: ryan97ou | November 6, 2009 1:34 PM
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver
Posted by: Jean de La FONTaine | November 6, 2009 1:37 PM
You have done a good job raising your daughter if she recognizes the awesomeness of cheese.
Sadly, I can not say the same. My oldest has recently started experimenting with veganism. A life without cheese. Sigh. Where did I go wrong?
Posted by: Sarah | November 6, 2009 1:42 PM
.namkrow eht swonk eno , krow eht yb
Posted by: hobaveilebnu | November 6, 2009 1:43 PM
Once at the Charleston we got this amazing cheese with some backstory about this English woman who only makes 150 wheels a year. It was great! I have no idea what it was called though. It was smooth, creamy, and cheddar-ish.
Posted by: matt hudock | November 6, 2009 3:25 PM
Which reminds me--we haven't heard much from Donny B. lately.
Posted by: Dahlink | November 6, 2009 3:53 PM
As a practicing cheeseholic, anything on the subject captures my attention. The cheese idolatry of "Wallace and Gromit." The glorious absurdity of Monty Python's cheese shop (with its empty shelves and crazed chorus line of Greek dancers.) A suggestion to combine toast, thin sliced Gouda and dark English maramlade. Delicious! A ripe, runny Brie. I'd say more but I have a sudden uncontrollable urge to hit the cheese bin in the fridge.
Posted by: Michael A. Gray | November 6, 2009 5:54 PM
As I have said before on this blog, my first real paycheck came from a cheese shop, Gourmate, Ltd., in the King of Prussia Mall in PA. In retrospect, it may be the best job I ever had. Hmmm ... I can retire in 2012. I wonder what the retail cheese trade will be like then??
Oh, one more word ... Caerphilly!
Posted by: The Canon | November 6, 2009 8:42 PM
What a friend we have in cheeses.
Posted by: Hal Laurent | November 6, 2009 9:07 PM
I'm not a cheeseaholic. Cheeseaholics go to meetings.
Posted by: Trip Klaus | November 6, 2009 9:26 PM
Cheeses love me, this I know
'Cause Hal Laurent tells me so
Some are mild and some are strong
Cheddar, Gouda, provolone
Yes, cheeses love me
Yes, cheeses love me
Yes, cheeses love me
Hal Laurent tells me so
Posted by: jl | November 6, 2009 10:40 PM
Funnily enough, The Boy and I just tried (and subsequently bought) a new cheese tonight. It's called Menage, and it's a mix of goat, sheep and cow milk... it is SO DELICIOUS.
Cheese = love
Posted by: TwoToedSloth | November 6, 2009 11:52 PM
"The poets have been strangely silent on the subject of cheese."
--G.K. Chesterton
Posted by: Cleatus | November 7, 2009 12:15 AM
Cleatus...what Chesterton said is not completely so. Take, for example, jl's masterful ode to cheese, with its rich, piquant flavor and slightly runny syntax when served at room temperature.
Posted by: Michael A. Gray | November 7, 2009 4:49 AM
jl, you spent way too much time in church at some point in your life.
Posted by: Lissa | November 7, 2009 9:01 AM
I remember one time I was at some restaurant in Fredericksburg, VA. I ordered a cheese plate that was very small and very overpriced. I complained to the waiter. He got all prissy and tried to explain to me that a cheese plate is just supposed to be a tasting. I responded that I knew what a cheese plate was from my visits to the Inn at Little Washington, and this was no cheese plate. I guess I got a little prissy as well.
Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | November 7, 2009 9:35 AM
MAG: I think he meant "heretofore" and "songs don't count." Otherwise, you'd have to count everything Tom Jones ever did...
Posted by: Cleatus | November 7, 2009 9:48 AM
"Blessed are the cheesemakers"
Posted by: Hue | November 7, 2009 1:31 PM
“Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese - toasted, mostly.”
Posted by: Robert Louis Stevenson | November 7, 2009 8:28 PM
Well, if I were stranded on a far off island, I'm sure I'd dream of cheese, too!
Posted by: Dahlink | November 8, 2009 7:29 AM
Cheesus is my Savior!
Posted by: Misha the Veggie Lover | November 8, 2009 9:47 AM
Sloth, I've bought Menage at Atwater's, and you're right--mixing the milks of those three animals was a stroke of genius! My all-time favorite is Brie, but is the five-year-old Gouda that Atwater's sometimes carries is a very close second.
Oh, and kudos to jl! That's two in a row ... want to take a crack at the new Lutheran hymnal?
Posted by: Dottie | November 8, 2009 11:57 PM
Cheeses loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Posted by: Stacy | November 9, 2009 11:58 AM
Wenslydale: What can I do for you, Sir?
Customer: Well, I was, uh, sitting in the public library on Thurmon Street just now, skimming through "Rogue Herrys" by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.
Wenslydale: Peckish, sir?
Customer: Esuriant.
Wenslydale: Eh?
Customer: 'Ee, Ah wor 'ungry-loike!
Wenslydale: Ah, hungry!
Customer: In a nutshell. And I thought to myself, "a little fermented curd will do the trick," so, I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles!
Wenslydale: Come again?
Customer: I want to buy some cheese.
Wenslydale: Oh, I thought you were complaining about the bazouki player!
Posted by: Pythons | November 9, 2009 10:50 PM
Sometimes when I'm cooking and the dish I'm making doesn't seem to taste quite right, I ask myself, "What would cheeses do?"
Posted by: Bob | November 10, 2009 1:10 AM
"Please Cheese Me, oh yeah,
like I cheese you".
The Beatles of Food indeed.
Posted by: John Lemon | November 11, 2009 9:26 AM
I just learned from the latest Vanity Fair that John Cleese's original family name was indeed "Cheese." It was changed in 1915 when an ancestor went into the military--he wanted to avoid the inevitable teasing he was sure he would get in the trenches.
Posted by: Dahlink | November 12, 2009 6:44 AM
Remember the Primus album "Sailing the Seas of Cheese"?
mmmm, a sea of cheese!
Posted by: PCB Rob | November 12, 2009 11:39 AM
ahh, Fl Rob, fondue memories indeed!
Posted by: Joyce W. | November 12, 2009 1:03 PM