Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Cheese Boot Camp

Since I got called out as being a hypocrite for my last posting(which I totally was, by the way), I decided to drop my anger and irritation about people having food blogs. I have one, so why shouldn't everyone?

Anyway, back to my most important topic of late - CHEESE!
I attended a weekend cheese boot camp this past weekend. I got to go for free because I work at the shop where it's held, so I was lucky not to have to spend the $500 fee.

It was as amazing as it sounds. There was so much information, from the history of cheese, to the way to distinguish types, ages, etc, to ageing, making, and even pairing with both wines and beers. WOW! I ate (no joke) 43 different cheeses over the course of the weekend.

I actually had to buy Tums on Sunday night when I got home. But lo and behold, Monday afternoon, I was sampling a new cheese from Ireland that we got in called Durros, and enjoying it immensely.
Crazy!

I guess it's the same thing as eating too much candy when you're a kid. Your mother tells you not to, but you do it anyway. Then, you get that awful feeling in your stomach and you know you went too far.
But, as soon as you feel better, you forget how sick you were, and go ahead and eat more candy. Cheese is my candy, but I also eat a lot of candy! But whatever the consequences were, I learned a ton of new information both about cheese in general and also about specific cheeses and styles. Very exciting time for me.

And as for my rennet dilemma, I am officially over it. I thought back to my dairy days, and while I am sure that no animal rennet was used to make the cheeses that I ate while in Israel, I am also sure that cows died in the dairy business. Whether it was the male calves being shipped off to be veal, or the adult femals with udder infections going off to who knows where, there was and always will be death associated with milk production, and since you can't have good cheese without milk, either you get over it or you don't. There may be cheese made without vegetable rennet, but to call it vegetarian is a misnomer.

That is my rant for today.
I have noticed that I do a lot of ranting. Hopefully it amuses some of you out there.