Good night, good bye

This is it, folks. The end of the semester. It was a fun run, but I have exhausted my desire to speak on the topic of cheese. I learned a few things, the most important of which being that blogging isn’t entirely evil.  I leave you with a couple of my favorite posts.

This is exciting in a nerdy way

You asked for it

That’s it for me on cheese. Check out all my long-ish stuff that I file away at Shoot From The Hip. And remember, it’s not you. It’s me.

The Ties That Bind

The following is a reflection on cheese culture brought on by flipping through a magazine. Yes, something as simple as that will make me wax philosophical.

Final Feature (dramatic music) after the jump.

I’m one of those people…

…who will read the last page of a book before I’m supposed to. Sometimes. Call it nervous anticipation.

The next post will be the 20th one and the last (not counting the Final Feature) as the class comes to an end. That’s the official “good bye” apparently. We’ll save the tears, well wishes, and rides into the sunset for that.

What I’d rather address with this, the last ramble, is what I’ve learned during this whole process. And I think I can sum it up in one sentence.

Have a passion for something odd and the rest will follow.

When I started this, I didn’t expect anyone to read it. Like I’ve stated, cheese is funny. People would probably think it’s a joke to write about it. But over the course of the past three months, I’ve had people tell me how entertaining (and informative…but entertaining) this little venture was.

It’s a pretty satisfying feeling knowing people can appreciate something you probably know too much about. It’s led to interesting conversations and general networking involving my other projects. Sure, I’m stuck being the Cheese Guy, but I can laugh about it.

Besides, someone’s got to help you be trendy right? There’s fashion blogs and lifestyle blogs. But food is undeniably in and what better way to impress than presenting your friends with cheese you can’t pronounce the name of?

Winding Down

As we approach the end of this journey (semester), we must ask ourselves what we’ve learned.

But I’m a procrastinator so I’m going to put that off too.

In the meantime, some house keeping. Then onto the cheese.

First, you all should visit Allison Quering’s blog. She was nice enough to give a nod to mine. You have to do more with your life other than buying cheese and this will help you.

Secondly, my other blog Shoot From The Hip. That’s new. And once this cheese odyssey ends, we should still be friends. Creepy internet friends. Be warned there might be some colorful language that pops up.

Now, follow the jump and we’ll talk about brie for a bit.

Arrr, me map!

Pirate speak. I need sleep.

This is a map of a handful of cheese shops I enjoy in the area. Assuming you start in South Jersey, you’ll notice one location. The other three are in South Philly, all relatively close to one another.

View Larger Map

This is exciting in a nerdy way

I just heard about something today that’s apparently been talked about for a year or so now, but here I am to add my own thoughts after all the good ones have been voiced.

First, meet the Kehlers.

What they’re doing is really pretty revolutionary, since this is the first cave aging cheese operation in this country. I’m told the caves are a sight to behold. Also, they have their own small fleet of high quality cows that produce fantastic raw milk. They also herd them indoors in the winter and play them jazz music to keep them happy.

I don’t know about you, but I trust any cow with an ear for jazz. I wonder if they like Thelonious Monk?

While that’s all very entertaining, the important this is we’re going to have awesome cheese for an awesome price. All the fantastic cave aged cheeses we get from overseas are pretty expensive. With them made here, with the same technology (do caves count as technology?) we’ll have almost identical quality for much cheaper.

Sometime this year they should be starting to send their cheeses to stores. (Last I heard only 2 of the caves were complete). I, for one, am psyched.

Finally, something to sink your teeth into.

On Monday, another detour from my usual rambling will be posted. This time, it’s going to be a Google map of some of the cheese shops I like in the area. It will be South Philly intensive, and Jersey will be represented a bit too. I’ll say a couple things about each and maybe even have a little bit of trivia.

What is this “Gruyere” you speak of?

Okay, who made Gruyere really cool and didn’t tell me? No, I’m serious.

Everyone and their mother are literally scouring for this cheese. It must be in every hot recipe published within the last two years. French onion soup comes to mind.

Let’s break it down. Because I’ve eaten a few.

First, there’s your standard “natural” Gruyere from Switzerland. It tends to have a blue label and is shy under $20 a pound. This is the classic, and it’s decent. A little too heavy on the “swiss” though for me. Meaning, it’s kinda smelly. And it totally smells like dirty diapers when you open it.

Okay, I take back that dirty diapers comment. The cave-aged version of it REALLY smells like dirty diapers. It’s older and aged in a cave for maximum stink. The taste is just a bit too much for me. If I want something this vile, I’ll get some Morbier. Sometimes, you need something vile.

America has their own variations on Gruyere as well.

My favorite is the Gran Cru Surchoix. This is the one time (tell your friends) that I prefer a domestic cheese over its foreign counterparts. It’s cheaper (under $14.99 a pound) AND it tastes better. Huzzah!

Recession Special! (That’s supposed to make you feel good?)

Everything’s part of a “Recession Special” these days. Cheap Cheap Cheap! Because you have no job, your insurance premium went up from a car accident you had 3 years ago (we checked your file and…), and your kids are going through a growth spurt so they need to eat more. But you should buy this.

This will get funny in a second, I promise. I’m getting off my soapbox.

Alright, so like I mentioned last week, here’s the cheaper alternative to the showstopping cheese platter.

Since we’re in a recession, I’m conserving letters and not giving it a long acronym. I’m just dubbing it TARP. (I can’t help myself)

Jump to the cheese, finally.

A thought occurs to me.

Looking at the previous post, I realize that some people might be thinking that something like a cheese tray for a party is hopelessly expensive. Especially, if you’re a college student scraping to survive. My project for the coming week is to put together a “Recession Special” shall we say?

I’m going to try and find some decent, bargain priced cheeses that will still impress without breaking the bank. That’ll be here next week.

In the meantime, contemplate the mystery that is American cheese. Why doesn’t it have an actual name?