| Presidio Social Club | lynne | If you have ever wondered where, in this city of hipsters and hippies, are the WASPs, look no further. They're at the Presidio Social Club, a new(ish) restaurant in the beautifully renovated former officers' club in the Presidio. Enter the dining room and behold! You're at the country club. (0) | » | ||
| Piccino | lynne | Basing one's business plan on the viability of Muni moving anyone anywhere seems unwise. Basing one's business plan on serving thin crust pizza in a tiny space on an unlikely street corner, however, is a tried-and-true formula in San Francisco (see: Pizzette 211). (1) | » | ||
| maverick | doug | Iceman's going for the hard-deck. Let's nail him, Goose! Attention: Everyone should turn, burn and check out Maverick, the little restaurant near the corner of 17th and Mission. Sure, it seems like it might be below your personal hard-deck; it looks a little too Blondie's,... (1) | » | ||
| Goat Cheese Pyramid | lynne | The Andante Dairy goat cheese pyramid is a little like that rare woodpecker in Arkansas that some people say they have seen and others say is extinct. If you can get up early enough, you might catch a fleeting glimpse of the pyramid at the... (0) | » | ||
| Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Pt. | lynne | Recently at a dinner party I met an eligible, attractive sort, not really my type but enticing nonetheless. Cowgirl Creamery's seasonal Pierce Pt. is a cheese perfect for a fling: it's creamy and complex, and it's only around for a short time so you don't... (0) | » | ||
| blondie's best | lynne | this is a pleasant little aged cow's milk cheese from a Northern California cheesemaker whose name I cannot recall. Rest assured, though, that if you're trying to eat as locally as possible, blondie's best can safely be on your grocery list. It's somewhat like an... (2) | » | ||
| Appleby's Cheshire | lynne | with a wedge of appleby's cheshire in the house, one is always eating good in the neighborhood. It's a Neal's Yard cheese, and so far in San Francisco I've only found it at Whole Foods. There are other cheshires to be had in the city,... (2) | » | ||
| quark | lynne | Quark (when it's not a subatomic particle) is a byproduct of curds and whey that results in what some describe as "a German-style cream cheese," others describe as "a cross between yogurt and cottage cheese," and still others describe as "yummy." This Saturday we bought... (0) | » | ||
| quesadilla | doug | Why the heck does this word have so many different pronunciations? It's one of those words that vast segments of the population consistently and confidently mispronounce. I bet you could find entire regions in which the predominant pronunciation of this word is kway-sa-dilya. "Can I... (0) | » | ||
| old amsterdam | doug | Ahh, Amsterdam. Sometimes I wish there was a General Foods International Coffee flavor that would transport me back to those gauzy days on the banks of the Amstel -- the cool fall breeze, the Nightwatch, the hazy coffeeshop afternoons. Actually, to faithfully recreate those simpler... (0) | » | ||
| camping with cheese | lynne | if i could only give one piece of advice in regard to camping cheese, it would be this: avoid cheddar. the worst is the cheap, generic cheddar, which turns to moist, crumbly shag carpeting after about 18 hours. when i was camping in washington this... (2) | » | ||
| flor di capra | lynne | Flor di capra is an organic, aged goat cheese from Italy. I bought it at the Rainbow the other week in part because I had some Capricious (organic, aged goat cheese from California) at home and wanted to compare how they taste. Leslie participated in... (0) | » | ||
| bacon | lynne | Now, I know that this is a forum for talking about cheese, but I want to take a minute and talk about cheese's great friend, bacon. Bacon's role in the downfall of many a vegetarian regime has been well-documented elsewhere, and that is not what... (0) | » | ||
| rainbow cheese department | lynne | I would like to take back any negative statements I may have made in the past regarding the Rainbow Grocery's cheese department. It's a very good cheese department, with many cheeses I've only seen at Artisan, like mimolette and Sally Jackson aged sheep's milk, wrapped... (2) | » | ||
| lincolnshire poacher | lynne | this is a raw-milk British cheese, firm and aged yet with a smooth, creamy texture. Like George Clooney. According to the folks at Artisan Cheese, it has undertones of smoky bacon and according to Doug (who also resembles George Clooney), it tastes really good with... (1) | » | ||
| spanish idiazabal | doug | I liked smoked cheese because it reminds me of the smoking destruction often wrought by my favorite basketball team, the Kansas Jayhawks. Each winter, I ingest a healthy cross-section of smoked food -- from Cyclone flambe to charred Sooner, from grilled and skewered Missouri Tiger... (2) | » | ||
| cabrales | lynne | this cheese is reputed to be King of the Blues, edging out Roquefort for the title of the strongest, sharpest, most pungent blue cheese in the world. At the urging of the nice lady at Artisan Cheese, Katrina and I sampled the King on Friday.... (3) | » | ||
| farmer steve's goaty cheese spread | doug | After a long sunny Sunday spent assembling bee hives and running, I sampled Slide Ranch Steve's latest cheese effort, a tangy, salty cheese spread made from adding rennet to the milk of Slide Ranch goats. Most farmer's cheese is made with archaic methods that often... (0) | » | ||
| tomme d'abondance (french raw milk) | doug | All those froofy-sounding French gruyeres tend to inspire patriotic disgust for the very sincere self-importance of everything French, even though they rarely disappoint, taste-wise. My problem with this gruyere is that it demands too much from me. I look at it in my little cheese... (1) | » | ||
| dutch parrano | doug | This cheese is the When Harry Met Sally of high-end cheese -- white-bread, straight-forward, and adequately satisfying for 63% of men and women between ages 27 and 46. You can bring it to a dinner party full of strangers, and satisfy both the cheeserati and... (1) | » | ||
| mac 'n cheese | lynne | I think macaroni and cheese is the dish that first introduces you to how good cheese can be, and how much better good cheese can make something taste. Call it what you will --- shells and cheese, mac 'n cheese, quattro formaggi, --- the combination... (4) | » | ||
| vento d'estate | lynne | I've been intrigued by this cheese for a while now. It's a barrel-aged cow's milk cheese from Italy that has hay pressed into the rind. At the store, where the pre-cut pieces sit on top of the giant wheel, you can see the long strands... (4) | » | ||
| caciotta dei boschi | lynne | Italian for "trufflicious" (Venetian dialect) or "magically delicious" (Tuscan dialect) or "as good as crack" (Corsican), caciotta dei boschi is a homely looking cheese. Its yellow-beige flesh is spreckled with brown truffle bits, giving it the appearance of say, a quail egg. Imagine, for a... (2) | » | ||
| Humbird | fish | I'll be visiting here in a few hours: Humbird Cheese Mart I'll let you know. I'm not sure I did this link right.... (1) | » | ||
| espadrilles and guns | leslie | I'm assuming we will interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for round-the-clock coverage of the situation in Zurich, namely, that talented actor Don Johnson has been detained at the Swiss-German border with a car full of $8 BILLION "in bonds, stocks and credit notes in his... (4) | » | ||
| civilized living | lynne | I've always been a proponent of civilized living (and I think we are all agreed that cheese is the bedrock upon which civilization is constructed) and today, after an unextremely uncivilized wait at the post office to turn over things that already had postage on... (2) | » | ||
| wisconsin | fish | Wisconsin researcher makes a better cheddar -- Associated Press -- Published March 12, 2003 -- MADISON, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor says he's found a way to take the bitterness out of cheddar - a discovery that could save cheesemakers some serious bread.... (2) | » | ||
| cave-aged gruyere | lynne | this cheese is like that boy your mother wants you to marry---safe, reliable, a little bit predictable. you know it's always going to treat you right. you hold the idea of it in reserve like an extra ace tucked away. when you've been burned by... (3) | » | ||
| capricious | lynne | an aptly-named aged-goat cheese so playful and salty that it brings to mind the Great God Pan cavorting around a field with his pipes, surrounded by half-naked nymphs. I've only seen this once at the Rainbow (the cheese, not Pan---I doubt Pan would grace the... (3) | » | ||
| carnia altibut mezzano | lynne | Last night at Delfina I sat by myself at the counter and made a new friend: mezzano, a playful mix of cow and goat milks. It's from Friuli, one of those Italian mountain areas, and it tastes the way you would expect---like cows and goats... (2) | » | ||
| french port salut | doug | Rainbow's genius little description of the FPS -- "This cheese is mentioned in every cheese book from the 70's" -- doesn't mention ONE relatively important quality of it -- the fact that it has almost no taste, and the taste that it does have IS... (2) | » | ||
| cantal | leslie | when talking about cheese it is hard not to keep bringing up the French, but we must give credit where credit is due. Not only do the French have their official 360 cheeses but they also have an infinite number of ideas about what to... (0) | » | ||
| cottage | leslie | The Cottage Cheese Song (sing to the tune of Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead): small curd, large curd, medium curd. low fat, non fat, full fat. with pineapple, with hamburger, with wheat germ It's a versatile, hard-working cheese that doesn't put on airs.... (2) | » | ||
| comte | lynne | I would like to draw your attention to a little-known (outside the Jura-Massif) cheese called comte (but of course it is pronounced cone-tay, just because the French can't let a consonant be a consonant). Like many mountain cheeses from that area of the world, it... (7) | » | ||
| rumblecheese | leslie | hey you guys: Who do you think would win in a rumble between Bi-Rite employees and Rainbow employees? They could meet down at the docks. No knives or chains allowed. I think the Bi-Rite employees might be stronger than Rainbow employees, because Bi-Rite employees probably... (10) | » | ||
| CHEESE | doug | Cheese. ('chEz), noun, a food consisting of the coagulated, compressed, and usually ripened curd of milk separated from the whey.... (2) | » | ||
| toothsome offender | lynne | Douglas, I notice that you are a repeat toothpick user. At the Bi-rite these days, they have taken to putting out cheese samples at the most popular time for shoppers. From about 5:30 on, there are delightful little ramekins full of little bites of cheese---midnight... (3) | » | ||
| ceci n'est pas un queso | leslie | words that rhyme with queso: 1. peso. 2. i can't think of anything else. words that sort of rhyme with queso: 1. miso. tasty soup from japan. 2. cuomo. mario: former governor of new york. andrew: former secretary of HUD. once considered one of the... (4) | » | ||
| the name of the cheese | leslie | As a youngster, I really liked the book "I Am The Cheese" by Robert Cormier. I think it's time for a re-read. As I recall, "The Chocolate War", also by Robert Cormier, was pretty good too. Those books, along with "A Separate Peace" (John Knowles),... (0) | » | ||
| international korner | leslie | In Asia, there is no cheese. lka... (5) | » | ||
| velvet revolution | leslie | When are we going to talk about Velveeta? I was just online visiting the Kraft Foods Interactive Kitchen, and I noticed some really cool recipes using Velveeta. Like one called "Golden Sauce". Also, Velveeta has other uses, such as: my dad used a block of... (1) | » | ||
| dutch 2-month goat gouda | doug | Sooner or later, the gods of gouda will deliver a cheese that I don't like, but it hasn't happened yet. This youthful goat gouda is more light-hearted than its 2- or 4-year cousins, the sorts with the sneaky creamy-slash-salty bite that roots you to your... (0) | » | ||
| swedish vasterbotten | doug | This occupied Rainbow's special little Cheese-of-the-Day table a while ago, and I still feel conflicted about it. I tasted it and I liked it enough to buy a brick of it. But when I ate a slice on Ryvita, I noticed that it has a... (2) | » | ||
| austrian moosbacher baby swiss | doug | Upon first tasting this cheese at Rainbow, I ignored the posted rules and REUSED my tasting toothpick five times. Okay, nine, maybe ten times. This nutty, salty cheese was made to be eaten with something green. Kale works, and so do green beans. Am I... (0) | » | ||
| parmesan reggianno | doug | News flash: Parmesan cheese is not just for sprinkling on pizza. While its tasteless, soulless paremsan cousins became condiments, Reggianno kept its feet on the ground and its head in the game. Namely, it kept its taste and texture real, so real, in fact, that... (5) | » | ||
| humboldt fog | doug | Don't bogart the Fog, my friend. On the evolutionary ladder of cream cheese, this kind Northern Californian nug is the most highly evolved, a hairless biped with ESP among mass-market subspecies with brow ridges and saggital crests. Pay special attention to the stripe of green... (5) | » | ||
| dutch 4-year gouda | doug | It's flaky, but full of life, like a good yoga teacher. It's also salty, which makes it more like a good yoga teacher from New York. Added bonuses: it's got a very distinguised dark orange color, and it's very stylishly packaged in a simple black... (0) | » | ||
| jarlsberg | doug | Rainbow won't carry it because it has "preservatives" in the rind. Perhaps these preservatives are the secret to its excellent taste. This cheese is best eaten on Beckman's 3-seed sourdough while watching SportsCenter on Saturday morning. Also good with Miller High Life, but what cheese... (0) | » |