Food
1 December 2009
It’s almost exactly six months since I posted the first of these cheesy writeups, and cheese # 50 is coming up later this week. Either of these things would be a good excuse for a celebration. Both together most definitely are! Clearly, the way to celebrate having eaten FIFTY cheeses is to eat some more cheese, no? I’ve yet to figure out the minor details of this. (Or, actually, anything beyond NYOM NYOM eat more cheese.) Does anyone have any clever suggestions?
more »
marna in FT /Pumpkin Publog • 14 Comments
27 November 2009
Flower Marie
Soft, white-rinded, raw-milk sheep cheese, from Sussex, bought from Neal’s Yard Dairy
Flower Marie comes in little brick-like squares. The rind is white with gentle pink tinge, and adorably soft and velvety-furred and strokeable – like a baby animal. The cheese inside’s pale and creamy, a touch crumbly in the centre, and sticky – almost liquid – directly under the rind.
It tastes bright and light and salty and fruity, and very rich and creamy. There’s just a hint of a herbal, floral flavour, and soft and gentle caramel and nutty flavours. Towards the rind there are hints of mushroom. Overall, it’s sweet and rich and mellow, gentle, varied and subtle. more »
marna in FT /Pumpkin Publog • 1 Comment
24 November 2009
Pubs can offer many excellent things, as are being amply revealed in our Pubs of the 00s series. However, culinary invention is rarely one of them. Even self-proclaimed gastropubs rarely get further than putting ‘twists’ on the standard pub options — sausages, pies, burgers, sandwiches, fish & chips. Some of them just chuck the word ‘posh’ on the front of each and have done with it. This is because pubs should offer comfort and stability, and that’s what people want from them.
The Spirit Group (the managed arm of Punch Taverns) have, however, waded into the murky territory of food science, which they should really have left to the experts. more »
Ewan in Pumpkin Publog • 7 Comments
23 November 2009
Cone du Port Aubry
Raw French goats cheese, from Mons
Cone du Port Aubry is, as the name implies, conical. Internet anecdote says that the cheesemaker nicked his wife’s bra and used it as a cheese mould. If this is true, then the cheesemaker’s wife has alarmingly large and pointy breasts. My slice of cheese is a pale off-white on the inside, turning squishy towards the rind. The rind’s darker and partially covered in a pale grey bloom.
It’s surprisingly dense inside – the texture’s like plasticine – but it melts in the mouth. Initially the cheese tastes astringently herbal, and lemony-goaty. This fades into a contrasting creaminess with hints of coffee and chocolate and hazelnut. Towards the rind a soft mushroom taste appears, alongside some surprising fruity moments – tangerine, pineapple – and some prickly pepperyness. There’s very little bitterness in the rind; it’s soft and sweet and bright. more »
marna in FT /Pumpkin Publog • No Comments
17 November 2009
Introducing CHEESY WOOFER! Finlay the dog has very generously agreed to help me review these cheeses.
Selles sur Cher
A French raw goats cheese, bought from Mons
This little flat round cheese has a greeny-grey charcoal rind, speckled with a white bloom. There’s a soft squishy translucent layer directly underneath the rind, and a putty-like dense bright white layer in the center. The clean white paste inside contrasts really prettily with the dark rind.
The rind tastes prickly and peppery and medicinal; hints of TCP. Inside it’s soft and smooth, and melts in my mouth. It’s very creamy, for a goat’s cheese and has small bursts of thyme and rosemary flavours and a gentle sweet nuttiness.
Cheesy Woofer: Finn eats this cheese after some persuasion. He doesn’t recommend it. (However, I do! It’s very tasty.) more »
marna in FT • 6 Comments
12 November 2009
Lex joined me for this cheesy lunch.
Knockalara
A soft pasturised sheep’s milk cheese, from Ireland, bought from Neal’s Yard Dairy
This is a wedge of pale yellow rindless cheese, with a buttery rich texture.
I think it’s yoghurty; almost like eating a block of yoghurt, in fact. There’s a hint of raisin sweetness underneath. This would be an excellent cheesecake-cheese, and I have a hankering to make a lemon cheesecake with this in the title role.
Lex reports that it’s tangy, the flavour lingers, and the texture’s interesting; solid yet spreadable.
more »
marna in FT /Pumpkin Publog • No Comments
30 October 2009
An occasional series where we mock the nonsense written on crisp packets.
“It takes a more adventurous homegrown spud to volunteer for our sizzling Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Some spuds simply ‘dreaded’ not being picked so they went back to their roots (man!) to prove their worth. But the ones in this bag just chilled out ‘cos they knew they ware far better than the rest of the others.”
Well done Walkers, skirting accusations of racism and cultural stereotyping in three needless sentences to add nothing to a bag of crisps that tastes just like you mixed up the roast chicken powder with the picked onion powder.
Pete Baran in FT /Proven By Science /Pumpkin Publog • 1 Comment
20 October 2009
St Felicien
Soft raw cow’s cheese from France, bought from Mons
St. Felicien comes in a shallow round wooden box. It has a wrinkled white and cream coloured, softly bloomy rind. When I cut into it I see exactly why it’s sold whole, in a box; it’s entirely liquid, and the creamy cheese puddles out of the rind. It’s the colour and texture of double cream. I fetch a spoon.
Creamy probably goes without saying, but this cheese is also surprisingly sour and bitter. It’s got both a lemonishness and a taste of soured milk. It’s also got a bit of herbal astringency, reminding me of thyme. It’s bitter in the aftertaste, and it leaves my mouth tingling. The rind (I have to fish a lump out of my sea of cheesy ooze) is creamier, if that’s possible, and softer and sweeter; it has nutty fudgey notes. The St Felicien is so oozy and liquid that I was rather expecting a slightly tart and funky cream, but it’s more complex than that, with a big contrast between the sweet creaminess and the bitter and sour ends of the cheese. It’s good!
more »
marna in FT • 6 Comments
17 October 2009
As part of my job, I am the recipient of lost property, contents of unused lockers and the like at a university. These usually sit on a shelf until claimed, however yesterday I was contacted regarding the contents of a locker which the student no longer wanted. “Give the contents away” he said from Dubai. So I went through the books to distribute to new students, and thought I would claim as my payment a packet of Quavers. Lovely, lovely quavers, the cheese corn puff curl which both crunches and is insubstantial. A hard mans Skip, a weak mans crisp. Moreish in all the best ways.
The locker had been in use recently I had assumed by the phonecall, accidentally left full at the end of September. Unfortunately the same could not be said of the Quavers. After eating the first one, I noticed something wasn’t right. Checking ont he packet I discovered the truth. The Quavers had an expiry date of the 30/12/08. They were ten months out of date. So what happens to cheesy Quavers after they have expired?
They taste of Humbol Messerschmitt Grey Enamel Paint. Who knew?*
*Note, I know what this paint tastes like from an accidental brush sucking moment as a child when painting an airfix kit.
Pete Baran in Proven By Science • 2 Comments
9 October 2009
Cheese stats: Soft-ish raw cows milk cheese from the alpine patches of Franch
Bought from: Mons
This rind’s ochre, orange and white, bumpy and mottled, with specks of a bright yellow mould. Inside the cheese is a pale cream colour – crumbling slightly towards the centre, moist and squishy further out.
The centre tastes sharp and tart, juicy and rich and full of fruity flavours; apples and apricots. It’s smooth and creamy, with a buttery texture, and it melts away to nothing in my mouth. Towards the rind it turns mushroomy – still with that creamy richness. The rind itself has a pungent grassy, earthy tang; straw (like the smell of freshly mixed henna), wet composty earth, and a touch of cowpat. All of it’s suffused with a gentle herbal taste, and the varying flavours and textures work really well together.
Conclusion: I wish I’d bought a bigger wedge of this!
marna in FT /Pumpkin Publog • 4 Comments
« Older
Newer »