Cheesy beginning

So Steve and Sarah set off on their journey to eat a lot of cheese this year, in spite of their concurrent plans to lose weight, eat healthier, and be less chronically broke.  They went to Whole Foods this morning, girlchild in tow, with the specific goal of trying some new cheese.  They spoke with the cheese monger like a couple of disgusting yuppies and then settled on the recommended French Agour Ossau Iraty and Gabriel Coulet Roquefort.  We also got some pumpernickel and some water crackers to help us eat the cheese without making a mess.


We'll start with the Agour Ossau Iraty.

The cheese monger said it is Manchego style, which piqued my interest since Manchego is one of my favorites.  The internet further informs us that it is from the Pyranees region of France and made with sheep's milk.
Wikipedia
Best Cheese in the World 2011
It also won Best Cheese in the World in 2011.  Off to a good start!
It tastes like butter and sunshine.  It isn't as oily and fragrant as the Manchegos of my past, it is more simple and honest than that.  This is the kind of cheese people eat at picnics in the movies with a picturesque chunk of bread and a label-less bottle of wine.

The Roquefort, on the other hand dares you to hate it.  This cheese is the definition of stinky.  You can smell it through the wrapper, that foundering bite of rot that made every child I've ever known forswear bleu cheese for ever and ever and ever.  It's soft, and it doesn't crumble as much as it smears (said the cheese monger), so that's exactly what we did, on our pumpernickel bread.  This is a cheese made for creativity and concentration, a cheese snack to inspire, to distill your fears about stinky cheese and force-feed you the droplets so you have to move through your nightmares to the creamy bliss of the Roquefort.  It's wicked good cheese and I suggest you try it.
Gabriel Coulet (this page is in French)