Who else is enjoying a day off, occupying your hours with enjoyable events, relaxation, the weekend New York Times and doing things that you are passionate about making you smile?!? I know I certainly am...however as of recent, my weekends have been less about relaxing and more about running around doing twenty-five million things, but as long as I enjoy what I am doing, there is no problem.
After a ten mile run in the park this morning, I ventured over to Fairway to go food shopping. Fairway can be a disaster -- full of typical upper west siders trying to get their shopping done, who outside of the supermarket, tend to be nice, but in the supermarket, their shopping carts are like their weapons to get you to move out of their way so they can get their produce more efficiently than you can. Thankfully, for some reason, at 10:20 on a Saturday morning, Fairway was somewhat quiet! Thrilling for me, I could take my time!!!
I picked up my produce and various necessities and then ventured to the Fairway cheese area...as you walk into the area, on your right is a fridge case with all sorts of cheese, bries, goat's cheeses, Fairway's homemade cream cheeses, grated parmesans, crumbled blue cheeses, and some hard cheeses..as you continue back on the right you see a variety of kosher packaged cheeses and then on the left you see a large selection of goat cheese logs and other hard packaged cheeses like pepatos, manchegos, cantals, cheddars, etc and then a variety of pates... But straight in front of you is the cheese counter...Cheese counters at supermarkets I find to be symptomatic of what sort of image the supermarket is trying to project -- Fairway's is certainly crowded and chaotic yet interesting and unusual....they definitely have a European concentration of cheeses...but although they have a lot of cheeses, it is hard to digest, process, and chooose what cheese you want because the cheese are layered on top of one another and unfortunately they are not organized by country, style, or milk. The other part about Fairway and about most supermarkets is the fact that instead of writing the per pound price of cheese, they write prices per quarter pound. If you ask me, supermarkets do this so you think the cheese is cheap and therefore will buy more...
When you get to a cheese counter whether it is in a cheese specific store or in a supermarket, I think it is important to determine what sort of cheese you want, whether it is for a party, for a special occasion, as a gift, for everyday usage or a mixture of all of the above. Today I was there to get some everyday cheese, I knew I already had Saint Maure (an aged goat's cheese log), some grated parmesan, and some fresh goat's cheese at home. I wanted to get some easy blue to pair with a nice bottle of Smith and Woodhouse Lodge Reseve Port -- I wanted the nuances of the port to sing so I didn't want the blue to be too nuanced or too extreme...and I knew I wanted one or two nice hard cheeses that wouldn't break the bank..
I quickly perused the selection today and decided first on the Australian Roaring Forties blue. It is a delish, easy go to blue cheese that is pasteurized cow and is covered in wax allowing the blue mold to age nicely....and perfect to pair with our port.
Then I decided on the first of my hard cheeses - Roth Private Reserve -- which is crafted in copper vats and aged on wooden boards in the Roth Kase cellars, a raw cow's milk cheese that embraces its Swiss heritage along with its Wisconsin terroir. This is a simple but good cheese. I'd pair potentially with a homemade sundried tomato tapenade and some olive bread and a nice medium bodied white.
Lastly, I got a Sardinian young sheep's milk cheese, Briganta. It is a delicate, bright and clean finish sort of cheese, delish on its own. This is not a cheese that I recommend you pair with intense flavors like the Roth Reserve. This cheese is great with a small slice of Eli's amazing whole grain bread. I might pair this combination with an aperitif -- maybe even a cava St. Germain cocktail, something light and flavorful.
That wraps up my Fairway cheese purchases. I personally like Fairway's cheese counter, but do I think they have the best selection with the most knowledgable people helping you, definitely not. But it is the sort of cheese counter that if you know what you want or some direction of what you want, yes..
So, be prepared, it is, if you ask me not a beginner's cheese counter..
That's all for today folks, check back tomorrow for the Valentine's Day breakfast I prepared..
Have a lovely Saturday evening.
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