Cheese

It has become a tradition that each time Tuk travels to Thailand I create a cheese plate for myself.
This year's cheese plate proved difficult to photograph. I offer two equally poor photos.




I suppose there is some debate over the placement of the starting point for a cheese tasting. The common starting location for cheese tastings seems to be at the 12:00 position and move clockwise. However, most food tastings start at the 6:00 position. I prefer the 6:00 placement order myself. Place the first cheese close to you then go on an adventure out and back again.

You can pick as many cheeses as you like for your tasting. Consider a theme. Could all come from a particular country or region, like all Italian. Could try pairing them to a particular wine or food. Consider complementary (as I did for this tasting) or contrasting as a theme. All goat, all sheep or all cow are other options. They could even all be one type of cheese, say an all cheddar tasting.

The order of each cheese is up to you. The general idea is to have progressively more complicated (or stronger in general) cheeses towards the end of the tasting. You start with the first then move on to the next when you're ready. You can jump back and forth all you like comparing one to another. Don't rush as you slowly add in another cheese to the mix. As you add more cheeses you pick up on the simmilarities and differences among the cheeses. Consider the taste, color, smell and texture of each.

Starting at 6:00 (well, 7:30 in this case) and going clockwise the cheeses I picked are:

1) Bellwether farms Carmody is a local Sonoma cheese that is firm with a buttery taste.

2) Cowgirl Creamery St Pats Organic is another local cheese. I look forward to this seasonal cheese each year. Wrapped in nettles it has a simple yet distinct fresh taste I like.

3) A Dutch triple cream gouda that turned out to be quite mild. Moving it to 2nd position made it more interesting. An aged gouda would have worked better for 3rd position. Anyway, the sweet smell of gouda reminds me of the red waxed gouda balls we had as a child. When people say cheese stinks I always question that idea in my mind as my first impression of cheese was the nice smell of gouda.

4) Bonifaz Bavarian blue is surprisingly creamy and mild. Not too salty. Very much a ripe cheesy cheese yet not over powering. Goes well with the other mild cheeses I picked.