I’m very tired today. I’m not sure if this will affect my cheese-tasting ability or not. Let’s hope not. The reason for my fatigue was a late-night poker session last night (I won!) and an early-morning start to go to a boot sale where I bought about a million records, well 17 (I’m currently listening to Look At Us by Sonny And Cher. It’s alright.). The Havarti I had last week caused quite a stir. John tried some and was so repelled by the taste that upon impact with his tongue he spat it straight out. We had to put it in the bin, it smelt so bad. John then described the taste as “reminding” him of “having a cock on (his) mouth”, which is a bit weird. Mike witnessed the whole display and refused to even touch the cheese. A wise, yet cowardly, move. My cheese exploits have also inspired some friends to try and become experts in other things also. Mooted ideas include wine, ale and chess. Good intentions but I’m not sure they don’t have the gumption to go through with it. Like I do.
Anyway, Saint Agur. This is a much newer cheese than Havarti. It first, er, appeared in 1988, the year of me being 11 and big trainer-boots, probably. I bought it from Tesco so it, presumably, is quite a widely available, popular cheese. It comes from Central France and can be considered a double cream cheese, apparently. This is because it has a lot of cream and butterfat in it. I don’t like the sound of a lot of things that cheese has in (Sonny And Cher are done now, time for The World Of Donovan, the massive hippy). Havarti had some odd-sounding enzymes in that sounded a bit science-lab for me. Butterfat also sounds a bit disgusting. The cheese is white with deep, dark blue veins.
Crikey, I’m not sure about Donovan. He’s currently singing
“engine goes brr brr, when you’re riding in my car”
Texture-wise, it’s nice and creamy and can be spread easily on a cracker. Just put some in my gob now and…mmm, tasty. It’s pretty tangy, a bit salty, quite strong but not too strong. It reminds of Gorgonzola or Danish Blue and it’s good. I guess it’s the sort of cheese you wouldn’t want to eat too much of, ’cause it’s quite rich but it is rather splendid.
So, 2 cheeses down. 1 disgusting, 1 great. Proof, if needed, that for every good cheese there is a bad cheese. That is a saying, right?
January 10, 2008 at 11:28 pm
My, what a fine web log of cheese you have going on here. I have a fantastic stilton in the fridge right now – it lives in it’s own ceramic pot and I had to break a wax seal on it to get inside. tangy, fruity and although very strong, not too repugnant. I think you’ll like it, you must come over one time and try it.
catch you soon!