“It all comes back,” writes Joan Didion in her
famous essay on the subject of writer’s notebooks. Now that summer is
slippering away, I find myself flipping through pages of cheese notes on rainy
afternoons. It's true. It does all come back.
For almost three years now, I have recorded every
nibble, every recommendation overheard at the cheese counter, along with lists
of cheeses to try. Bad Axe. Gamonedo. (I have yet to find either.) But I will
tell you this: it’s a pleasure to go back in time and relive first impressions –
the first bite of Moses Sleeper, the first whiff of Comte: like nutty brown sugar – gorgeous, perfect, no ragged edge.
So now that I am 3 dog-eared notebooks deep, allow
me to nudge you, Lover of Cheeses, Dreamer of the Golden Dream. When you shop
for school supplies, pick up a small notebook to carry in your sock or back
pocket. Why?
You
can write down all your cheese desires. Then, when you go to
the store and you can’t for-the-life-of-you recall whether you ate Boursin or
Burrata at your cousin’s bat mitzvah, you’ll only have to flip open your little
Bible.
You
can scribble notes at the cheese counter. Cheese counters should
have scratch paper. The mongers always have great tips for pairings and
sometimes tell scandalous stories that are worth recording for later
histrionics. Won’t you be a clever fly on the wall with your new Moleskine?
You
will develop a glittering palate. Cheese can seem
daunting, but if you begin to describe flavors on paper you’ll begin to
recognize certain qualities that reappear – like grassiness or peanutty tastes.
Soon, you’ll see that these flavors are distinct to certain cheese styles.
You
can read aloud from your cheese notebook at poetry readings. Let
me give you an example: Tuma Di Fobello,
smells meat lockery and ripe. Looks vaguely leopard print. A real fly magnet.
You’ll
make fabulous friends. A cheese notebook leads to
tastings. Tastings lead to cheese parties. Cheese parties draw Europeans.
Europeans bring great cheese, and the beastly cycle continues.
Best
of all, you can tell others that you are writing a memoir. Some
people need a farm in Africa. Others need sad divorces in order to eat, pray,
love. A good cheese is all the journey you need. Let’s remember that. Say it
after me. Now write it down.
I keep my journal on my computer... cheeses broken up by type, then color coded based on how much I liked them. It's a little ocd but it's helped me separate the good/bad/in between.
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