Swiss Fondue in the USA

 I am SO excited to be heading off on a trip to Switzerland and Spain on Friday. And even more excited to return and tell you all about my cheesy adventures there! But first, a taste of Switzerland here in the USA....


As luck would have it, a Swiss arts organization owns the apartment across the hall from me and runs a program that gives emerging Swiss artists the chance to spend a few months creating in NYC.  The current artist living there is Mischa Camenzind, a brilliant guy who makes amazing pieces that provide a uniquely Swiss perspective of NYC and the world. Check out his artwork below.

The other night, Mischa was kinda enough to have my roommate and me over for a very cheesy meal: Gerber fondue, straight from Switzerland. Of course the Swiss have a prepackaged fondue, and of course it's incredibly delicious. Mischa added a bit of wine and garlic, and the flavor he produced was unlike any you can find in the USA. I hadn't tasted such a scrumptious and utterly Swiss fondue since I was in Geneva, and I can't wait until next week to taste it again!

Two types of fondue: L'Original and Moitié-Moitié (half Gruyere, half Vacherin Fribourgeois)

Lots of Swiss flags and happy cows on the packaging.

Tea lights and burner plates: Mischa's homemade fondue contraption.

Even better than a sterno.

Samara is happy while consuming pounds of melted cheese.

Bread and cheese. What more could we ever need?

No Swiss fondue is complete without a glass of Kirsch at the end- this cherry flavored liqueur helps you digest all that fatty goodness you just ingested.

Now go out and eat some fondue.

A Very Cheesy Birthday

Last Thursday was my 23rd birthday, and naturally I celebrated with cheese. While searching "birthday restaurants" on Yelp, Kashkaval Cheese Market and Wine Bar came up in the results, and I couldn't believe I had never heard of this cheese-centric shop. I was apprehensive to try a new place on such an important day, but the reviews of the restaurant were very positive. The shop calls itself, "One of Hell's Kitchen's hidden treasures," and my experience there lived up to this term. Tucked into the back of a bustling gourmet market is a tiny wine bar filled with a variety of great cheese dishes, wines, and tapas. I had an unforgettable birthday celebration and would suggest the restaurant to anyone for a large dinner party, romantic date, or simply a cheese purchase.

We ordered a large tapas plate and a selection of three cheeses that the waitress suggested. All three were utterly delicious, but the cheese that stood out to me was the Gjetost, a Norwegian cheese that tasted more like caramel fudge than a dairy product. Gjetost is made from the whey in curdled milk, while most cheeses are made from the curd. This difference gives it a dark brown color and a sugary flavor. I couldn't believe how great the cheese tasted, but I also couldn't believe it was cheese. 

food52.com

Igourmet.com gives this description:
It has an unusual, sweet flavor due to the way in which it is processed. The milk is cooked until the sugars in it have caramelized, giving the cheese its distinctive brown color and sweet flavor. The milk is then curded and pressed. The cheese became popular as a skiers' snack and thus the label on the whole cheese is emblazoned with the words "Ski Queen". It is widely popular among Scandinavians, and children in the United States are drawn to its sweet flavor.

baroodyimports.com

We also ordered a pot of Kashkaval fondue, the eastern European yellow sheeps milk cheese that lends its name to the restaurant. After one bite I could see why they chose to name the shop after this particular cheese, as the taste was truly remarkable. Wikipedia says, "The taste of the kashkaval is sometimes compared to that of the United Kingdom's cheddar cheese", but the cheese has a flavor all its own. It was sweet and savory all at once, which happens to be my favorite taste when it comes to cheese.

Thanks to you, Kashkaval Cheese Market and Wine Bar, I had an incredible birthday dinner filled with Kashkaval fondue, Gjetost "fudge" cheese, and my closest friends. You can see just how happy I was here during my cheesy birthday celebration.

And speaking of incredible experiences... 
The only thing that could have made mine better would be to have beaten twelve world records during the celebration, like cricket player Freddie Flintoff attempted to do in only twelve hours:

FREDDIE FLINTOFF SETS 14 WORLD RECORDS IN ONE DAY FOR SPORT RELIEF

(guinnessworldrecords.com)

Fastest time to wrap a person in newspaper, most kisses given in 30 seconds and more:

Most tennis balls caught in 1 minute, fastest 3 point turn and more:

Now go out and celebrate broken records by eating some cheese.

Cheese Addictions and Gum Art

People always say to me, "Wow, you're obsessed with cheese." 


Yes, I am. And studies show that I might have an even stronger attachment to cheese. Not only am I obsessed, but I have an actual physical addiction to the delicious dairy products. People have long discussed how chocolate and other foods have addictive qualities, whether it be psychological or physical. Everyone that gets headaches when they don't have their morning cup of joe knows how addictive caffeine can be, and even use this fact as reasoning for consuming many cups each day.


I'm not surprised at the news of cheese's addictive quality. What comes as a shocker is the ingredient that is responsible for this phenomenon: morphine. MORPHINE?! That's right. Morphine is a natural ingredient in both cow and human milk, serving the purpose of creating a special bond between mother and child, and ensuring that babies get the nutrients they need. I'm serious! Learn more here:

Addicted to Cheese? Here’s Why (care2.com)

mediabistro.com

How does this information impact me? It doesn't, except that now I have a reason for eating so much cheese. When people ask about my obsession, I can shrug and say, "I know, it's bad. Someday I'll kick this addiction."


But I probably won't, and that's ok. On the list of addictive substances, a protein-packed dairy product is probably one of the least damaging. And most delicious.


And speaking of addictions..... Another on the list is chewing gum. In the U.S., people chew an average of 182 stick equivalents per person per year. This doesn't seem terrible. What's awful, though, is the amount of gum that ends up on the sidewalks of our cities. I've seen many train stations that have a chewing gum "carpet" on their platforms, due to years of wads of gum being discarded after they lost their flavor.


Now one artist has come up with a solution for all these disgusting gum marks. He's making them beautiful! Check out these awesome designs that Ben Wilson is creating on some of London's gum-infested sidewalks:

London artist paints miniature masterpiece on discarded chewing gum (msnbc.com)

 Now go out and eat some (addictive) cheese.

So many cheeses, so little time!

I feel lucky to be facing a certain problem at the moment: I've had so many cheesy experiences lately, I can't decide which I should write about! They are all so unique and fascinating in their own ways, and every cheesy event teaches me something new about the dairy product I love so much. I'm going to share as many as I can with you now.


Here's a sampling of briny, illogical, and always fun cheese events that I've participated in lately:

Mozzarella Making Class

Cheese with some leftovers from class.

I took an important step in my personal cheese education by participating in a Mozzarella Making class at Murray's Cheese. I was surprised by the simplicity of the process (although I must admit that I didn't take part in the entire process, since we started with pre-made curd). We ran around filling buckets of water at varying temperatures and pouring it into large bowls of curd for a few minutes, and soon everyone in the class was salting and stretching their own personal mozzarella creations. After rolling it into an "uncooked croissant," we pushed the ball through our fingers and placed it in salt water. Voila!

Me eating the mozzarella

I ate the cheese just two hours later with some friends, and I'm proud to say that it was DELICIOUS: fresh and milky, with a brine that accentuated the flavor. It was truly the best mozzarella I've ever eaten, and it wouldn't have existed without me.

Briny: Like a sea animal, mozzarella survives best in a saltwater environment. If you remove it from the brine you'll dry it out, and it will end up lifeless like this poor giant shark that was recently caught by Pakistani fisherman.

Giant Whale Shark Reeled In By Pakistani Fisherman (abc.com)

The Stinky Cheese Festival
I attended the annual Stinky Cheese Festival, hosted by Tour de France, which is a group of French restaurants in New York City. For one week, each restaurant offers a special cheese-filled menu, featuring delicacies such as Welsh Rarebit Tallegio, Poached Pears with Gorgonzola, Raclette Savoyard, and Fourme d'Ambert Ice Cream. It was difficult deciding which of the nine restaurants to visit, but finally I settled on Pigalle, because I had never even heard of it before. Most of the dishes were truly impressive, although I was slightly bothered by the small proportion of cheese to pairings and garnishes. Then again, I'm a cheese-a-holic, and it's always hard to have enough cheese to please me.

We ate...

 Camembert in a hazelnut crust with a fruit compote on the side.

Raclette with a selection of charcuterie, cornichon, and mustard.

A fresh cow's milk cheese dip with chives.

A Fourme D'Ambert ice cream served with a wine-poached pear and maple-walnut brittle. You can see that it was our favorite, because we gobbled it up before I could even take a picture.

Illogical: Some illogical thoughts become genius creations, such as the combination of ice cream and and blue cheese. Others don't work out as well, such as this man's idea to install a stove in his station wagon.

Zany Swiss man installs wood-burning stove in car (msnbc.com)

Homemade Baked Brie
Some of the best cheese experiences take place at home when you create your own cheese dish with friends. I whipped up this Baked Brie with Leah on a rainy afternoon last week, following her friend Emily's recipe. The spatula got stuck, a few "flowers" fell off, but the finished product tasted spectacular. It was made all the better by the fact that it wasn't a mass produced item, but instead a unique product crafted by our own hands.

Fun: Creating your own cheese dish at home is both delicious and fun. It could be almost as fun as shooting a marshmallow gun around the white house with the president.

Obama shoots marshmallow gun during White House Science Fair (thegrio.com)

Now go out and eat some cheese.

Why soy cheese isn't cheese, retouching is cheesy, and other lessons from WATC.

Look at all this incredible cheese that I didn't even get to try!

I've been told by a number of cheesemongers and experts that soy cheese ISN'T cheese. Just this weekend, sitting in on a mozzarella making class, I heard the instructor explain that dairy is a NECESSARY ingredient in cheese, and that if it's missing then the food might as well be labeled as something else entirely. Until a few weeks ago I had never tasted soy cheese, and based on these descriptions I had no desire to do so. 


Then a very unfortunate turn of stomach events led me to the sad conclusion that I should try cutting out cheese for a while. It may have been the greatest challenge I've ever attempted (harder than eating maggot cheese) and I must admit that I failed at the challenge after a very short amount of time. I love cheese too much to abandon it, even for a very temporary period.

More cheese! So hard to resist!

While on this No Cheese Diet, I decided to taste the much-scorned soy cheese. I know they can do a lot with soy nowadays and make some pretty scrumptious food replacers, so I tried to keep an open mind as I walked into my local Westside Market and waded through all the beautiful cheeses to find the non-dairy imposters. I had to employ the help of a friendly Westside Market cheesemonger who has been working in cheese for 20 years, and he claimed the soy cheese "wasn't that bad."

Soy cheese. Look how boring it is.
(foodsubs.com)

He had me taste some soy gouda and soy cheddar. They tasted exactly the same to me: like soy. The flavor is similar to a Kraft single, only worse. Any semblance of cheesiness gives way almost instantly to an overwhelming taste of bean, which is not surprising given the main ingredient but still incredibly disappointing. My helpful cheesemonger advised that the cheese melts well, which I don't doubt given its consistency. Melting wouldn't change the flavor though, so I'm not sure how much it could help this food.


As I expected, I completely agree with all the cheesers who claim that soy cheese is not truly cheese. It's an acceptable food, and if I hadn't eaten cheese in years I could see myself enjoying it. However, I do eat cheese daily and savor every morsel I pop in my mouth. So I cannot say that I like soy cheese in the least.

Oh non-descript "Cheddar" Soy Cheese, I hereby crown ye... Cheese (Replacement) of the Week. *Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*

Here's a week filled with a new breed of cheese and stories that are beany, fake and daunting.

New Breed: Although most of these dog breeds have been around for hundreds of years, this year marks the first time that they will be represented in the Westminster Dog Show. Similarly, even though soy has been around for a long time, it has only recently begun to be included as a variety of cheese.
6 new breeds debut at Westminster dog show, but history shows rookies face long odds to win (washingtonpost.com)



Beany: This man was crowned "Captain Beany" when he took a bath in baked beans 25 years ago. Based on his name, I think he might be one of the only people who would prefer soy cheese over its dairy-filled parent. For his next fundraiser he'll be bathing in a large bath of tomato soup, but maybe he could be convinced to bathe in soy cheese in the future.
Captain Beany turns soup-a-hero for day (thisissouthwales.co.uk)

designcollector.net

Fake: Sanna Dullaway's attempt to reinvigorate history with color has sparked quite a controversy. While some people may enjoy the new look of these classic black & white photographs, most think that these famous photographs should never be modified with fake colors. I must agree that these photos should remain true to their hues, much like cheese should stay in its true dairy form.
Sanna Dullaway's Colorized Series Of Historical Photos Creates Controversy (huffingtonpost.com)

Daunting: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stands at the whopping height of 7'2", daunting even to Hillary Clinton. He is the NBA's all-time scoring leader, and was recently appointed global cultural ambassador. Soy cheese might seem like a small challenge compared to all that Kareem has accomplished, but I bet even he would think twice before consuming this food.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes on a big job for a big man (msnbc.com)

Now go out and eat some REAL cheese.

A Special Delivery from Switzerland

As a cheese lover, I am deeply grateful to have friends in foreign places - especially when that place is the cheese capital of the world, and especially when these friends happen to pass through the United States with cheesy care packages.

On New Year's Eve, I jumped at the chance to meet my friend Stéphane from Switzerland, who was on his way to Mexico for a holiday. Of course I was excited to see a friend that I hadn't caught up with in years, but I must admit that I was almost equally thrilled for an entire kilo of my most beloved Swiss Gruyere that he agreed to bring along.

This Gruyere, the original and the best, is produced by the Swiss company "Le Gruyere." They only export cheese up to 12 months in age to the USA. Cheesemongers have told me this is because there isn't a market for the deeply aged Gruyere here in the states, but that's hard for me to believe! The 12 month can be quite delicious, especially when aged by great cheesemongers like Murray's Cheese, but to me it doesn't represent the true Swiss taste. When I lived in Geneva, my favorite Gruyere was the 24 month, which is TWICE as old as the Gruyere in the USA and arguably twice as delicious. 

www.switzerland-cheese.com

Stéphane is quite an authority on cheese himself (not only is he Swiss, but he has worked in the food business his entire life), and he was smart enough to taste the cheeses before purchasing this monster kilo for me. He informed me before his arrival that he had decided to bring the 18 month instead of the 24, because, "Le 18 mois était bien meilleure (petite touche de noisette au goût)." Or in English, the 18 month was much better (small touch of nuttiness in the taste). His experience is a perfect example of why you must always taste before you buy. Each wheel of cheese comes with a unique flavor, and the best 
tasting Gruyere may vary from week to week.

www.fribourgregion.ch

I am now savoring every bite of this incredible Gruyere. It'll take quite a while to get through, but it couldn't last long enough. Out of all the cheeses I adore, I can confidently tell you that the true "Le Gruyere" is my absolute favorite. It's salty and sweet with hints of nut and caramel, and a few delightful amino acid flakes in every bite. To me, this cheese is perfect.

Merci Stéphane, Merci La Suisse... Vive Le Gruyere! 


Donc allez-y et mangez du fromage.

Our Favorite Pungent Imposters on 62nd

When my coworker asked if I had visited Cheese on 62nd, I couldn't believe I had never even heard of the place. Where were the tweets? Where was the website? That's how I get my cheesy info, and this little shop hadn't shown much of a voice in the online cheese community.

But what this store is lacking in internet presence, it makes up for in cheese: they have a HUGE selection of fromages from all over the world (including fresh burrata imported straight from Puglia each week) crammed into a tiny space that is cozy, overwhelming, and incredibly exciting.

Based on a few complaints I read on Yelp, I feared that I might be met with grouchy ladies reluctant to give out samples and chat about cheese. The moment I entered the shop, however, my fears were lifted as I was greeted by the warm smile of the owner. When I asked him to tell me about his cheeses, he immediatly began feeding me tastes of exquisite samplings and providing colorful background for each one. 

The only downside of my visit was that I forgot to pick up the fresh Italian burrata I intended to blog about. The plethora of other cheeses distracted me, and I left with a wide variety of other discoveries in my bag instead.

My favorite cheese discovery was an oozy beauty called "Préferé de Nos Montagnes", hailing from the Jura region of France. Sadly, the cheese is most often celebrated as a stand-in for another: the famed raw-milk Reblochon from France that's banned from American markets.

nellsdish.com

It's been a few years since I had Reblochon, but I can't imagine that it's much better than this gem. The consistency is ridiculously gooey, the flavor is pungent yet smooth, and the overall experience is as near to perfection as a pasteurized, legal cheese could be. It's no wonder the name translates to "Favorite from our Mountains".

Oh Préferé de Nos Montagnes, I hereby crown ye Cheese of the Week.

*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*Clap*

Here's to a week filled with stories and cheeses that are 

pungent, barely legal, and imposters in their own right.

Pungent: 

The beauty of this cheese lies in the balance between pungency and smoothness. Unfortunately, I don't think this Jesus-faced sock will maintain such a balance while it hangs in this lady's apartment for years. You can't wash a holy sock.

No jokes about holy socks, please! Image of Jesus Christ miraculously appears amid laundry (dailymail.co.uk)

Barely legal: 

If this cheese were any more alike its Reblochon sister, it would be illegal in the United States. If these underwear-clad shoppers were wearing any less clothing, they too would be breaking the law. Then again, I'm not sure if nudity is illegal in Spain.

Barely-clothed coeds queue for clothes in Spain(msnbc.com)

Imposter: 

Among a group of Americans, this cheese could probably pass as a true Reblochon without anyone identifying the imposter. This man didn't pass as well among the crowds of North Korean's gathered for Kim Jung Il's funeral. His height raised questions among the international community of whom this gigantic North Korean could be.

'Giant North Korean soldier' pays respects to Kim Jong-il (telegraph.co.uk)

Now go out and eat some cheese.