| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » | ||
| 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) | » |