The best cheese store I have ever found is in Southern California. The Cheese Store in Beverly Hills stocks every possible cheese one could ever wish for or dream of.

To me it tastes like caramel and goat's cheese got married and had a baby :p

I love the fruited Stilton available at Trader Joes. Our local store usually has apricot and/or cranberry. Its sweet & buttery. Goes well with a simple water cracker. They also carry an herbed goat cheese log that alway gets raves when I serve it.

You're correct. It's a cooked product, made by boiling goat's milk, cream, and whey; and the heat of cooking carmelizes the milk sugars, giving the cheese it's characteristic color and flavor. ^ ^

Never been there but Artisanal in NYC is a great place.

Seems the OP isn't very interested in cheese after all :(

Maybe the OP isn't interested, but the rest of us no doubt have benefited from the suggestions made in this thread. I for one am now experiencing a pang of cheesy "homesickness" for our 2-year sojourn in Paris, the best part of which, I think, was the cheese. (We used to tell people that although I moved to France for work, my husband moved for the cheese.)

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Who Cut The Cheese: a wine and specialty cheese store 1279 S. Kihei Rd., Maui, Hawai'i

http://www.whocutthecheese.net/

We enjoyed a Lemon Stilton (found @ WholeFoods) on NYE. It had a lightly candied lemon peel in the cheese, with a nice mix of sharp stilton, tangy lemon and sweetness from the candying.

We also had a sharp gouda that was nice.

A piece of a good Parmesan can give people who are less adventurous a familiar way to dive in.

This article might be of assistance
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archive...aufort_dt.html

So William YOU are the person that is buying this ;)

When I was running a fancy food shop we had a standing order for this cheese,which came packed 6 to a case.
The person soon cut back their order and at one point I had to say sorry because I was throwing out 4 for the 2 they purchased.
So unless you used to shop for cheese in San Francisco(?)you do have a fellow gjetost lover out there!

It's big in the upper midwest!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geitost

I will second the vote for aged Gouda -- it's familiar, yet surprisingly different. Along those same lines, Vella's dry Monterey Jack cheeses are excellent, firmer than what you think of when you think of Monterey Jack cheese, and much, much better tasting, too. I can get the "special select dry" locally and it's one of my favorites.

...it might be fun to try to put together a tasting of cheeses that are variations on "standard" cheese -- find a "classy" version of a Gouda, Jack, Cheddar and so on, just to explore the full range of possibilities even in the basic cheeses. Anybody know of someone making a good "American cheese"? :)


If you like cheeses with additional flavors thrown in, sage derby is one of our favorites, and it's readily available, but there are a large range of qualities out there, so it may take a little experimenting. I'm also a fan of Red Dragon, a Cheddar made with ale and mustard seeds that has lots of flavor and is great for casual snacking with crackers and a beer.

there is a FANTASTIC book by Steve Jenkins called The Chese Primer-highly suggested.
Ten Cheeses is a lot for a cheese board-things start to get confused.
The classic suggestion is,one soft ripened (Brie/camembert or one of its sisters)one good Chevre(try to get away from the "american cream cheese"varieties)one blue,one washed rind,one hard/semi firm cheese.
you can throw in a triple cream(those who love St. Andre try Exploreteur or Brillat Saverin)and if this if for a cocktail party rather than dessert a flavored cheese is nice.A good chedder is nice for those that are not adventurous.
I garnish with a variety of nuts and. dried fruits as well as Spanish quince paste and Italian fig spread.
The world of cheese is so very vast and wonderful that even I-who have been at this for over 20 years!-make new discoveries every time I visit a cheesemongers shop.