So lately I am trying to learn cheeses. No, not the processed chedder type.. but like.. well, the stuff you could get at a half-decent wine-and-cheese party. What with the St. Lawerence Market close by to work, I get to visit the cheesemongers there and get some hands-on (well, or.. taste-buds-on) experience.

Recent visits to Quebec and trips to fancy restaurants there has awaken my appetite for European cheeses. Promptly, my dear o' girlfriend (thx hun..) suggested that I should get a book on cheeses to learn about them. The book recommended to me is French Cheeses: The Visual Guide to More Than 350 Cheeses from Every Region of France by Tomoko Yamada et al. (ISBN 0789410702, DK publishing ). It's actually not bad a book. It is, like the name suggest, a reference book to French cheeses. Each cheese it catalogues has at least one picture, brief history, and suggestions on how to serve it and what wine to pair to the cheese. For the more famous cheeses a longer description is given.. for example for Roquefort it has multiple pages describing the history of the cheese, and even a guide to the geology and properties of the caves of Roquefort that the cheeses age in, and that lends the name to the cheese. Too bad in Canada you aren't supposed to be able to get raw milk cheeses due to some legistration.. but I hear if you know a cheesemonger well accidents do happen (oops.. they undercooked this cheese.. in fact.. they've undercooked it for centuries..)
Anyways, every two weeks or so me and my friend Vivian goes to St. Lawerence Market to have lunch. Of course afterwards we go to the cheesemongers and see if we can pick out some cheeses to have. My girlfriend too is starting to get a hang of the cheeses too! (well.. last time I made her taste some of the blue cheeses I bought and she seems to like them..)

So far, I have discovered some cheeses.. Not all of them are French, but they are all good so far.. (i.e. I haven't yet found a cheese that I dislike.. yet.)

• Cambozola, a creaming German cheese which for me tasted like a Brie with blue veins.. very creamy and the veins are not too strong. Too bad it doesn't really keep and you have to eat it quick.


• Jarlsberg, a Norwegian cheese that is like swiss cheese.. Well.. it even tastes like swiss emmentaler.. and has a wax rind which I find annoying to remove.. doh.


• Saint Albray.. I had some in Quebec while on vacation and I like its spicy flavour.. (well it's not like.. spiced up spicy hot.. but it has a bite and a tang.. if you know what I mean. .. hmm. you don't? oh well.. buy some)


• Saint André, this is the cheese that I accidently bought after mis-pronoucing "Saint Albray".. this is a cheese much like Camembert.. but its much larger and has a middle that is more cream/curd than cheese.. you can imagine that it has the outside moldy rind, then cheese, then a sour-cream core.. kinda. It's quite good actually.. sinfully good.

I think I'll now attempt to get me a slice of Roquefort...