Jamie and just celebrated our fourth anniversary and the traditional gift for this year is supposed to be flowers. Apparently, the order of gifts is supposed to reflect the investment that the couple gives of themselves to each other. We decided early on that we would make an investment in making memories because the last thing we need is more stuff.
Instead of a dozen roses, we had a very cheesy anniversary. I am not sure what that says about us. For the most part, we were eating expensive cave-aged cheese so maybe that means we will have many years together in the dark. I digress, though, I was going to tell you what we smelled, tasted and saw during our few days of celebrating our anniversary.
We got married four days after our friends Margot and Paul, so on Thursday, we decided to do a Beer and Cheese tasting at Artisanal Cheese. We all trekked waaay over to 10th Avenue and the evening started off with a champagne reception with some of the best fondue I have ever tasted. At seven, we went into the tasting room and met the cheese guru from Artisanal Cheese and the gal from Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales to begin the tasting.
There were six different cheeses set up in a clock formation and five different ales in wine glasses in front of us. We were given instructions on how to score each pairing, but it all seemed rather subjective to me. I went in with some preconceptions about pairings – the biggest being if you don't like the cheese or don't like the beer, then you just don't like it, but I wanted really open-minded about it. For instance, I don't like blue cheese - I mean, when I eat blue cheese, I make a rather nasty face, but since we were paying $75 a person, I figured I better at least try it. There was actually one beer that took off some of the “stinky feetness” of the cheese, but I still didn't love it. The rest of the cheeses were pretty impressive, and I appreciated the care that went into it all. The cheese guru made it seem as if there was a cave full of incubators downstairs - he even said they sing to their cheese.
The cheese guru did tell us about all of the benefits of cheese. Although it is high in the calorie department, eating cheese helps in weight reduction as they burn abdominal fat. WHAT? They also help reduce the risk of diabetes and heart diseases. 1. Cheese is a good source of calcium. This is especially true for adults, who tend to have a diet that is low on calcium, leading to a higher chance of osteoporosis. 2. Cheese is also a good source of proteins, which contain amino acids that help with repair of body tissues. 3. Certain cheese like Swiss, Gouda, or aged Cheddar is believed to prevent tooth decay and help against cavities. So, there you go.
About the Cheese (I stole some of the descriptions from the Artisanal Website):
Cantalet is related to the British Farmhouse Cheddars, is a cow's milk cheese from the Auvergne in south-central France. It is weighty, moist, creamy, with a lovely sweet and milky quality. This went extremely well with practically all of the beers. This was pretty close to heaven on a plate and I think I could have eaten an entire pound of it.
Beaufort Chalet D'Alpage is a raw cow's milk cheese made in the Haute Savoie region of France, and its wheels are among the largest wheels of cheese produced artisanally. Beaufort has a natural smear rind and is immediately recognizable by its inwardly-curving sides. While a young Beaufort has a mild, fruity, sweet flavor, the Chalet d'Alpage farmer's variety that we have selected is aged longer and develops a lovely, rounded, more savory note. The breed of cow used to make Beaufort is traditionally the Tarantaise - a muscled beauty that does well in the barn during the winter and under the stars in the high summer pastures. The Chalet d'Alpage version is always rich and flavorful because the pasturing is done high up in the mountains. This was pretty darn tasty too, but was completely horrid with the Punkin Ale and the Bitches Brew.
Goat Gouda makes for a light, creamy version of Gouda. This cheese has a smooth firm texture that practically melts in the mouth leaving a sweet mild aftertaste, compared to the far more familiar and stronger-flavored cow versions. I enjoyed this, but I didn't LOVE it.
Beermat a.k.a. Aarauer Bierdeckel, is a washed-rind artisanal cow's milk cheese from Switzerland. Beermat is bathed in wheat beer, giving it a slightly toasty yet pungent aroma. This $46.00 lb cheese was the most expensive we tasted and it was my least favorite, except for the blue. I was fair to it, though, and even though it got 0 and -1's with most beers, it's taste was much improved by the 90 Minute IPA. And yes, it was pungent, but not in a way that agreed with me.
Tarentaise has been made by John Putnam from organic cow's milk at Thistle Hill Farm in Vermont since July 2002. Based on the Alpage-style cheese Abondance, Tarentaise is fairly firm and aged for at least six months. The flavor is grassy, nutty and buttery; as the wheels age in our caves, the flavor becomes more assertive. Tarentaise was awarded the prestigious honor of "Best Farmstead Cow's Milk Cheese" at the 25th American Cheese Society Conference. This was my second favorite cheese and got the best scores from me across the board - but again, I am leery of this process because it is all based on opinion. The color of this one beautiful - I want to paint a wall that color someday! Do you think if I took a piece of cheese to the paintstore I could have them colormatch?
Quicke's Cheddar is crafted by Mrs. Mary Quicke from the milk of 340 head of cattle on her farm in Devon, England. Her cows produce milk year-round and are grazed on grass for as many as 10 months each year, yielding a more flavorful end product. Quicke's Cheddar is made in the traditional style of English farmhouse cheddars - that is, it is bound in cloth, larded, and left to age for 18 months or more. The result is a spicy, caramely cheese with a hugely complex flavor profile and tight, crystalline texture. This one was pretty delicious too, Jamie's response? Yeah, but is just cheddar. Yes, he was right, but this is not your mother's cheddar and is $17lb.
Valdeón is a rich and creamy, full-flavored cow and goat's milk blue cheese, stronger than Stilton but less intense than Cabrales. The Valdeón wheels are wrapped in Sycamore leaves which contribute to their distinctive appearance and complex flavor. Valdeón was named best blue cheese in a 2003 national competition in Spain. Okay, this is a terrific cheese if you like blue, but I don't. My open mind said that it went extremely well with the Bitches Brew and actually made both of them much more enjoyable - especially since I didn't really care for either.
About the beer (all from Dogfish Head and from what I understand $14 a four-pack):
Let me say first that after hearing this woman speak, I am imagining a group of hippies in Delaware dancing naked around stills. She said that their first beer was made in the back of a UPS truck...hmmm...
Punkin Ale: This was made from roasted pumpkins and brown sugar and I love that they call it "punkin." I thought it was delicious, but Jamie thought it was a little sweet. What I liked was that it wasn't soooo sweet - there was just a hint of pumpkin in there without making it too sweet. It would probably fantastic to cook with, although at that price it would be much more tempting to drink.
Midas Touch: Apparently this is an Ancient Turkish Recipe from the 2700 year old drinking vessels found in the tomb of King Midas himself. She called it the holy grail, but I thought it was a little perfumey. It is almost like wine or mead and they recommend you drink it in a white wine glass.
Saison du Buff: This was my favorite and was a collaboration between Dogfish and two other breweries. I have really tasted nothing like it - it was very herby and is brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. No, really, it is...
90 Minute IPA: This has been voted the best IPA in America by Esquire Magazine and I believe it. This is a rather high-maintenance process since they hop it for 90 minutes. It has a hint of citrus and raisin and was truly tasty.
Bitches Brew: This was my least favorite, but I am not really a dark beer kind of gal, but I love the backstory...this beer was created to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Miles Davis' album, Bitches Brew and they highly recommend pouring a glass of cool (not cold) in a snifter and listen to the album while drinking. Great artwork on the bottle, btw.
My evaluation of the class is this: At $150 a couple, it was pretty darn expensive for what you got – the four of us went to Carmines afterward for a porterhouse because we were still hungry, but we had a great time.
On Sunday, our anniversary, we did the Foods of New York Tour of Greenwich Village. I cannot say enough about this company…this is the third one: Sushi, which was a sit down dinner and the Chelsea Market/Meat Packing District are the others. My brother and his wife did the China Town Tour, which is only given on Mondays during the day and they raved about it. The tours are very informative and the tour guides know their stuff. Even though we are locals, we always learn something and the food is grand. These well-designed tours take you to places off the beaten path and never take you to a chain. WARNING: Do not eat before you go on any of these tours…in fact – act like you are having surgery and don’t eat 12 hours before!
Our tour-guide Marie, who ended up knowing a girl Jamie dated years ago, was easy going, helpful, exceptionally knowledgeable and very concerned about the traffic. She always put her body between the traffic and the tourists and was ready to dive at anyone who put their foot in the street while she was talking. This is a good thing, I think. I used to work in the area and these quiet little street looks like you will see a horse-drawn carriage any second, but people careen down these streets like they are in the Indy 500 – Safety First! This tour provided history and food which are my two favorite subjects!
We started off with a slice of cheese pizza from the famous Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street where they use imported Italian tomatoes and Grana Padano instead of Mozzarella. I thought it was a terrific slice – Jamie thought it was meh…I did some research and apparently this is the location that was used for Spider Man 2 for the scene where Peter Parker was fired from his pizza delivery job.
Next we scooted back around the corner to Bleeker Street’s Faicco’s Italian Market where Marie brought us a nice fat Arancini, which is a deep fried ball of cheesy risotto and all I can say is YUM. They only thing is that it was so rich that I could barely finish and I can’t imagine eating more than one. Faicco’s sells these cook to order or you can buy a tray of them and take them home. The reviews of this place say that it is certainly worth planning a day around, unfortunately, it was Sunday and it was closed by the time we were finished with the tour (they close at 2pm on Sundays – probably off having a huge Italian dinner, sure wish that was on the tour). This is multi generation family-owned business and started as a Pork Store and has been deemed the best butcher in the Northeast. Pork you say? We will be back another day!
Off to Oliver’s &Co. This is a French-owned company which is a purveyor of olive oils and condiments. Ooh la la...we said to the first tasting, which was basil-infused olive oil with their fish spice mix on a delicious little piece of Amy’s Bread. They don’t “hurt” the trees when they pick the olives and they press the basil at the same time they are pressing the olives and you could tell. The next yummy bit was like a party in your mouth – it was spread with their Honey Harvest and was sprinkled with their White Truffle Salt. Oh, the salty and the sweet – writing this now makes my mouth water. They suggested that one of the best applications is to sprinkle this salt on popcorn…I can’t wait! Their olive oil is not inexpensive by any means, and we would have to sell our dogs to use theirs for everyday, but when you are using this as a dipper or in a dressing I think it can’t be beat. They also have vinegars, sauces and spice mixes and they also have a website, so you can order from anywhere.
Palma’s Restaurant on Cornelia is high on my list for Italian & Mediterranean and is quaint with a garden area behind. Our tasting was in the little yellow carriage house behind. I had no idea that quite a few historical gems are hidden behind tenement buildings. We went into the house, which can be rented for private dinners where they will cook a meal for you. Marie presented us with ramekins of cauliflower florets which were broken into tiny pieces with currants and pine nuts. This sampling made me really want to go back to experience a menu that changes every day. We will be back!
The next stop was at a restaurant provided a sit-down tasting and a potty break at the upscale trattoria, Centro Vinoteca on Seventh Avenue. This menu was created by Anne Burrell and we were served the roasted corn risotto. We had a glass of decently-priced sparkling rosé and finished our decent sized portion in about 5 seconds. Around us we saw happy people eating huge brunch plates of omelets and hefty French toast sitting under $10,000 chandeliers. We were tantalized by the menu on the chalkboard and wanted more, but the tour must go on, right?
Milk and Cookies was next, and David Schwimmer had his birthday there, but not on the day we were there. The smells alone wafting from inside could put anyone in a diabetic coma – and I mean this as a compliment. We were served an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that melted in your mouth and I think they must put crack in them because I became instantly addicted, not to mention the sugar high. The only con here was that we didn’t have milk to wash it down…sad panda.
We continued our trek down Commerce to the Cherry Lane Theatre and learned some historical tidbits along the way. For instance, even though I had designed at that theatre, I never noticed that there were cherry trees on the streets It made me realize how little I notice when walking around this city. For instance, I had walked by these twin houses that a sea captain had built for his feuding daughters and never realized that they were the same. There are very few windows on the side of the houses that face the garden, so the women would not have to be reminded of one another.
We circled around and ended up at Murray’s cheese, I mean, Cheese Heaven! We tasted four different cheeses, but my favorite was the Ewephoria Sheepmilk Gouda. Oh lordy, this was sooo good! This place definitely takes some time to go through and has fresh pasta and ravioli for those who want a jump-start on meals at home. Murray’s also has cave tours, courses, pairing events and boot camp for those who just can’t get enough of their cheese. They also have a plethora of dried sausages and meats and the sopressata was very nice. Marie packaged up the leftovers from the tasting and sent them home with us because we were locals.
Last but not least, we had cannoli from Rocco’s pastry. These are filled to order so the pastry shell was crispy and the filling has a hint of cinnamon – if that was not enough, it was then topped with mini chocolate chips.
So, there you go, folks. Two cheesy tours, two cheesy reviews…now, go eat some cheese.
