Fancy Food Show Cheese Redux

There were so many dairy celebs at the Fancy Food Show in D.C. on Sunday, I found myself gulping for air. While everyone else was crowded around Rick Bayless, who was dousing shrimp in a new packaged sauce, I was holding my breath before one cheese luminary after another. Here are the highlights:

1. I beheld the Cashel Couple.

Here they are, Sarah Grubb and Sergio Furno, makers of Cashel Blue, a cheese so sumptuous it should be called frosting. Sarah's mother invented the recipe, and now Sarah and Sergio have become dairy olympiads; they won gold at the World Cheese Awards in 2006 and 2010. 

Big fat gossip: Cashel Blue has been picked up by Kerrygold, (the Irish butter butter magnate), and I expect there'll be a wild marketing campaign. I hope. If only all the butter lovers would learn to embrace blue cheese. Pssst...Cashel is great for shmearing on bread, on oaty biscuits, even wrists.

2. I tasted the Lord of Hundreds.

My new favorite cheese. Look at the rind. 

This ewe's milk dream is so pretty, it has a manager, the lovely Ann-Marie Dyas of The Fine Cheese Co. in Bath, England (she's also a judge at the British Cheese Awards).

You probably know the crackers made by this company. 

They seem to worship cheese through their very packaging, and Ann-Marie was no different. She had me laughing about a cheese named Rachel -- after the cheesemaker's girlfriend, now his ex. She showed me his picture, then scuttled under a table and dug out some quince caviar for an impromtpu tasting.

3. I glimpsed Paula Lambert.

But I didn't get a chance to chat. She was elbow-deep in fans, sampling her goat cheeses from Texas. Paula is a pioneer. She began making cheese back in the '80s and is known for bringing  the first real Italian mozzarella to Dallas. She simply made it herself.

Look at this spread. I still fantasize about Paula's Hoja Santa, a leaf-wrapped muffin that once appeared before me on the cheese cart at the Four Seasons.

4.  I sampled Sgt. Pepper.

Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove Dairy in California has a new line of "flashback" goat cheeses that call to mind Ben & Jerry's. Rolled in four kinds of pepper, Sgt. Pepper has a trippy look to it and tastes like just the sort of cool, fresh bite you'd want on a roadtrip. It was positioned next to four other flashbacks, including PsycheDillic and Purple Haze.

5. I met a bicycle enthusiast who makes cheese.

Alan Glustoff from Port Chester, NY makes great raw milk cheese with some interesting branding. At 5 Spoke Creamery, he brings together wheels and wheels -- think cheese, then bicycles -- to promote the simple pleasures of eating and sidewinding.

I'd never tried this rustic number (and I'm embarrassed to say, I forgot its name), but I left the booth curious to try more. Luckily, I see its available at Philadelphia's Essene Market.

6. I discovered my first Puerto Rican cheese.

Quesos Vaca Negra claims to be the first company to produce aged artisan cheese from Puerto Rico. I believe it -- I was there in January and couldn't find a single local variety at the market. 

Cheesemaker Wanda Otero studied cheesemaking in the U.S. and now produces 5 cave-aged cheeses. It will be interesting to see how her new business progresses. This is her first year.

7. I tried all of Rogue Creamery's blues. 

I've been such a fan of Rogue River Blue, and I had no idea that this Oregon company produced a whole line. Their newest, Flora Nelle, tastes like pecans. It's sharp, sweet, nutty -- just wonderful. It's also the company's first pasteurized blue. 

This surprised me. Overall, pasteurized cheeses in America seem to be gaining complexity. What's the secret?

8. I spent five hours feasting. 

I couldn't believe the array of cheeses, the coolers full of wheels, the generosity of so many makers. I can still taste some of my favorites. Like Kunik.

And these tiny hand-made cheeses, called Hannahbells. They look like gumdrops and taste like marshmallow morsels.

And these succulent gems, from Vermont Cheese & Butter Co., where I met the oh so lovely Adeline Durant. My photos are a bit blurry. You can tell I was hurrying to maximize every mouthful. 

I was so happy to see Saxon Creamery, too. They make one of my favorite wheels from Wisconsin, Big Eds.

And that was all I could stomach. Now the countdown begins for the American Cheese Society Conference in Montreal, Aug.3-6.

Criollo Cheese: An Island Adventure

Psst....I’m back. Maybe you didn’t notice, but last week was lights out in my blogosphere. I had my feet in the sand, my eyes on coconuts. For 7 days, I surrendered my keyboard to soak up island life on Vieques.

I did plenty of eating -- plantains, papaya, yucca -- and I drank plenty of “Parcha Punch” made from rum and passion fruit, but I didn’t do my dairy duty. On the island of Vieques, no one makes cheese because there aren’t any cows (or goats) – just wild horses, hermit crabs, and iguanas.

Still, I had a few funny cheese encounters. At the supermarket, I found a package of Criollo Cheese, which appeared to be authentically Puerto Rican. When I got home, I discovered the “Made in Wisconsin” seal on the package. Turns out, this cheese was made in Monroe, about 30 miles from my hometown.

“Criollo” is often translated to mean “Creole,” but on Vieques the locals used it to describe their local cuisine, which consisted mostly of pork, seafood, and a dish called Mofongo -- a combination of garlic, mashed plantains, and other starchy vegetables like yucca and breadfruit. Very few restaurants served anything with cheese, except for processed cheese on sandwiches.

My friends and I ate a lot of Mofongo, but we especially loved quesitas, thumb-shaped pastries stuffed with cream cheese. We bought loads of them for breakfast at La Viequense Deli, where the salty dogs and Hunter S. Thompson-types hung out.

On my last night, I found a restaurant that served a “blue chesse” and star fruit salad. It sounded intriguing, but blue cheese crumbles just don’t cut it. I leaned back, looked at the night sky, and dreamed of Point Reyes Blue.

Evening in Esperanza

Then I went for a walk and admired the clouds rolling in over Esperanza – one of two tiny towns on the island. I didn’t mind not eating cheese for a week, as long as I could comb the beach in search of sea fans and wild sponges.

Still, I had to wonder: don’t the locals ever dream of cheese…strong cheese? Maybe in cultures where the weather is mild and the ocean purrs people to sleep, there isn’t the same kind of desire for strong flavor.

As soon as I saw snow on the ground in Philadelphia, I had a single-minded thought. You know it what it was. Bring on the Gorgonzola!