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?
Picos de Europa, Valdeón
Mixed cow and goat blue cheese, from Spain, bought from Brindisa
A blue beast mashup cheese! I find this very exciting. My wedge of this cheese has a pale orange bloomy rind, and pale cream paste with a generous sprinkling of green powdery mould. It tastes bitter, and cocoa-powderish. It’s reasonably salty, slightly sour and lemony. Towards the rind the veining is less intense, and it tastes sweeter; creamy, smooth and with a hint of almonds. The sweetness here is a good contrast to the bitter saltiness of the centre of the cheese. This isn’t such an intense blue that my mouth hurts, but not is it a huggy mellow sort of cheese; it’s too bitter and spiky for that.
Tetilla
Soft-ish pasturised cow cheese, from Spain, bought from Brindisa
Tetilla is Spanish for breast, says the internet. Google image search agrees, at least if you have safe-search switched off. Oops! This is a slice of a rounded conical cheese. It’s hard on the outside, and softer and oozy inside, scattered with tiny holes. It tastes very creamy and buttery, with a big initial whomph of alcoholic pineapple, and a slight lingering sourness. The cheese gets harder towards the rind, which is chewy and comparitively tasteless, but is strangely very pleasant to eat.