It has taken me a long time to describe my birthday meal, which ended, naturally, with a spectacular cheese course (I like my women with both eyes), because it is a little overwhelming to try to explain. I'm just not very good, once you get down to it, at describing flavor. Still, you deserve to know about the Manchego/Roquefort/Manouri/La Tur plate, served with membrillo, fig bread and a couple fine sherries...
The first two need no description, but they were particularly fine examples. I'd never had the Greek Manouri before, it seemed like a particularly creamy fresh pecorino, and it was very nice with the stronger cheeses. La Tur was the real star, but I will refrain from embarrasing myself, because Janet Fletcher is going to write about it in the Chron tomorrow. Let me just say cheese + sherry is brilliant (if you don't know much about sherry, this is a good place to start). Who knew?
Now, I'm also writing to say that one of those Food Network shows with an irritating dorky guy who travels around to do food things was devoted to Camembert de Normandie last night. I stayed up well past my bedtime as this guy visited Camembert, Parisian affineuse Anne-Marie Cantin, and Artisanal in NYC, and did nothing except make stupid jokes and eat huge quantities of Camembert au lait cru. We learned nothing, except for how easy it is to smuggle back into the US, and buy at Dean and Deluca. OK, it was cool to see the caves at Cantin and Artisanal.
Posted by max at September 17, 2003 10:51 AM | TrackBack