Cottage cheese is nasty. People shouldn’t eat anything that has been cottaged.

i'm woefully late to the 'What's the Deal With Cheesemongers?' thread and still getting caught up. my initial thoughts:

first off: Cougar Gold is the ril dil. get you some if you haven't had it, and get you some more if you have. not saying it's the best aged cheddar in the world, but it's damn good and comes in a can!

18+ month aged Gouda. has those little crystals like parmigiano reggiano that make the back of your jaw pucker when you taste it...so ****in' good.

speaking of which, i'm pretty sure parmigiano reggiano literally translates to 'the king of all the cheese' and it's name is controlled by a 'consortium'. pure italian gangster cheese.

manchego as someone mentioned above. spanish cheese great with fruit or cured meat. better when backed with sips from an estrella damm.

pretty much anything from Jasper Hill in VT or Rogue River Creamery in OR (including their award winning blues and gorgonzolas)

24+ month aged cheddar from pretty much anywhere

cottage cheese scooped with chips, especially sour cream & cheddar ruffles, lime habanero kettle, or doritoes.

Gotta say, I bought manchego once and was not at all blown away. It was fine? That was all. I didn't hate it; I was just shrugging. I haven't revisited it since. I probably owe it another shot given the comments in this thread (which are much in line with how people talk about it in general).

I love the term “gangster cheese”. Reminds me so much of my trips to Italy.

Not every manchego is created equal fwiw.

Also its a subtle nuanced cheese which most sheeps milk cheeses are, best enjoyed with a good cracker, membrillo/grapes/apple and a fine white wine.

Chaorce, fontina, burrata, gruyere, pont l’eveque, fourme d’ambert, truffle pecorino, taleggio, morbier,

But the KING is Brillat Savarin



Also Crottin (goat’s cheese) with fig jam

Yeah, the context I once had it in was a tasting of several nicer cheeses with wine, so I did at least some of that. I'll bust out an apple next time to add it to the mix.

feta cheese in greek salads. feta, spinach, and roasted garlic on pizza

feta cheese on greek burgers on pita bread.

!chef's kiss

Diner in Watertown used to have 3 eggs with a feta bomb on top. It was their thing, and it was solid.

Solid feta cheese inya face.

I get feta on a gyro and the greek salad. imo.

make a pizza at home and use hummus instead of tomato sauce. top with onions, olives, tomato, pepperoncini, cucumber if you want, and copious amounts of feta.

essentially a greek salad pizza plus a few extras.

I wouldn't call it a pizza, but would smash on a pita or naan.

you might not call it a pizza, but you'd also smash if it was on 'traditional' pizza dough with the raw ingredients and cooked like a pizza. it's not the same as putting the toppings on a pre-cooked pita or naan.

experiencing things in life that are familiar yet different can make life more enjoyable

Mo Feta, Mo Beta!

Homer, have you been up all night eating cheese?

Pretty much the only serious post ITT (I hope)

when i lived in seattle there was a bodega on the bottom floor, like a genuine one, the people running it didn't even speak english

they literally had nothing there, shelves were mostly empty and there was a drink cooler that had queso fresco

i could just buy a wheel of that and naw on it in my apartment - was so amazing

occasionally i'll see it in a white people supermarket and nostalgia gets me to buy it and then it just taste horrible and i force myself to eat it not knowing what to do with it

Bodega is a fun word to say. Try it out sometime folks!

Ate at a fantastic restaurant in Dallas last night called the Meridian and they had a catupiry cheese they served with Potato rosemary fugasse bread that blew my mind it was so good. I ordered 3 of them and couldn't stop eating:



and they had this great Brazilian grilled beach cheese on a stick:



I'm counting the days util I get back here to eat, damn it was good.

Hated queso fresco until I had it in mexico. Quality makes a big difference. Also taken a liking to gouda recently.

A small amount of goat cheese splotched across a pizza makes it 10x better

similar to your queso fresco comment, i developed a new appreciation for gouda after visiting Amsterdam and finding a particular cheese shop that had a wide variety. well aged gouda that has developed a crystalline structure similar to parmigiano reggiano is amazing.
Beemster seems to be a brand that can be found in the states. not claiming it's the best, but it's really good.

yeah, good gouda has the crystals like good parmesan. in the states I've had ok luck with gouda at trader joe's. Dutch Amsterdam isn't bad

found a use for crappy sam's club queso fresco

needs to be grounded as a flavor addition to other foods like salads and roast potatoes, then it works as passable food