Never bored with cheese boards!

 

One of the many good things in life is cheese of many kinds, and I bring you an experience that I was myself introduced to quite late in life: pairing and consuming cheese. The first one I tried here is a goat cheese with a skin of black ash which, on its own, is rather tangy and acidic, but when you have a fuller bite with the white creamy cheese, it blends in with the fattiness of the goat milk smoothly and deliciously.

In terms of pairing, we generally take a small fruit like grape or olive to enhance the chew. At the risk of sounding too pretentious, I should mention that I knew nothing about cheese a couple of months ago but have taken keenly to experimenting with them lately. If you could bite into this block of Saint-Marcellin, you'd know what I mean—it is soft and creamy on top of this crisp biscuit, so every angle of your bite prepares an immersive sour experience.

Many times it is difficult to predict what the first and last notes of a cheese can be, especially with some of these that appear so unassuming but melt into an array of smells on your tongue.

The one I tried over here is called Saint-Nectaire and although it is firm, it dissolves fairly quickly into a taste and texture similar to spreadable cheese, so we have the saltiness and creaminess reminiscent of a breakfast staple.

Which brings us to the French Comté, and despite the fact I removed the outer rind of this hard cheese, it is also edible but more bitter than the inner content. Flavour-wise, I pin it close to Gouda from the Netherlands, and I’ll say it is better paired with something sweet like honey or fruit wine to assist its better half, which is the texture.

Finally, I sliced into my last cheese which looks like Saint-Marcellin but remains nameless. It was so undeniably adventurous. I first felt a sweet floral smell emerging and then suddenly it exploded into a basket of apricots, plums, and grapes in terms of flavours and scents—I was rather taken aback by the rollercoaster, and of course it had to have a completely different aftertaste. The best I can describe it is earthy and mushroomy, so I stand by my assessment of cheese being the most unassuming weapons of flavour.

And then, to close the evening on a high note, we sliced into an ice cream and were reminded of all the good things in life.