Cheese Tasting Lunch!

Although my readers probably will find this nearly impossible to believe, I don’t usually put much focus on my lunch. Right now, since I am trying to loose some weight, lunch is two Adkins bars. Definitely blah. And J doesn’t do anything special for lunch either, making a meal out of whatever is leftover in the fridge.

So, for our vacation, I wanted to really do nice lunches. Here at Waneta Lake we are far from any interesting restaurants. I think we would have to drive all the way to Ithaca for a good meal. So I planned to eat all our meals here. This does make it possible for us to be budget-minded and nutrition-minded as well. So it’s all good.

Today’s lunch was a cheese platter. I bought five nice cheeses at Wegman’s. These were served with a multi-grain baguette, and a sour dough cherry nut bread. Here’s the line up with our remarks. I start describing the one with the piece missing.

1.     Chermont (Vermont).  This lovely double cream made with goat’s milk was wonderful. We had it last night on toasted rounds of the multigrain baguette, and beets tossed with a little vinaigrette and toasted pecans. We loved the richness and the light goaty-ness of this cheese, and both scored it as our top pick of the platter.

2.    Tarentaise (Vermont). This is described on the label as a alpine-style cows milk cheese. It is a hard cheese, with a medium-sharp cheddar flavor that develops in the mouth. It had a little grittiness to me, something I notice in some swiss cheeses with rinds. I don’t especially love it.  I rated it 4^th, but J gave it a 3^rd.

   

3.     Langa Castelbelbo (Italy). This cheese was semi-soft, kind of the texture of those Laughing Cow wedges you can get. Almost rubbery. The flavor was very non-descript, just light dairy, nothing more. Maybe it would be good cooked in something? I rated it 5^th. J rated it 2^nd, mostly because she liked the texture.

4.     Aged Mohon (Spain). This was a hard cheese, with a texture J described as flakey. It has a ceddary flavor that we both liked. I rated it 3^rd, while J, who will put any creamy cheese before a hard cheese, rated it 4^th.

5.     Jumi Apenberger (Switzerland). This was an amazing  hard cheese, creamy with a strong poopie flavor that ended on a floral note. It kind of tasted like dead things smell. But in a good way, really. I rated this 2^nd, but J was not impressed. She gave it a 5^th.

We ended our meal with some fresh cherries, which were exactly the right thing. With the early spring and then the freeze, and now the drought, we are feeling very blessed to have cherries this summer.

Tomorrow: Melon and prosciutto!