Cheese Mongers, Cow, New Zealand cheese, Review2 Comments

Mt Cargill Tudor- a Southern man of a cheese

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Life’s getting better in Wellington, partly because of the cheese mongers who are popping up across town. Last weekend I met Sally from Evansdale cheese. She’s one of the growing band of cheese lovers bringing small-scale, artisan and imported cheeses to the Capital. Alongside our emerging market culture, there’s been a real increase in the range and quality we cheese folks can find. You’ll find Sally every second Saturday at Thorndon’s Hill St Market with her Otago-made Evansdale cheeses. This is an intimate little market where there’s time to stop and talk to the stall holders and even better, time … Continue reading Mt Cargill Tudor- a Southern man of a cheese

Cow, Mountain cheese, Review, Uncategorized, Washed rind cheese2 Comments

Mont d’Or Vacherin – oh how we adore you!

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Smearing it on baguette, ladling it on boiled potatoes and spooning it directly into our mouths, my guests were transformed by a ‘fondue’ of Mont d’Or Vacherin on Saturday night. Possessed by its silky velvet, we were turned greedy by this most decadent of cheeses. In its wooden box, spiked with garlic and a slosh of white wine, it had been baked ’til it melted into a most unctuous delight. This is indeed a transformational cheese and from the minute I spied it in Moore Wilsons, the Mont d”Or had been obsessing me. For this is the kind of cheese … Continue reading Mont d’Or Vacherin – oh how we adore you!

Cheese geekery, Cow, Goat, Sheep, Uncategorized8 Comments

Fantastic feta – why so many choices?

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Cow or goat, goat or sheep? Brine or in oil, Danish or Greek? Crumbly or smooth, plain, sun-dried tomato or basil? Each time I buy feta there seems to be a new formulation or iteration! So today I’m on a mission to understand this salty-conundrum – what exactly is feta, and what do I need to know to make a good choice? I’ve googled and wikipeidaed, checked my cheese books, and to be called Feta in Europe a cheese needs to be Greek and made of ewes’ milk, though it can have up to 30% goat. In New Zealand it … Continue reading Fantastic feta – why so many choices?

Cheese boards, Goat, Review, Uncategorized2 Comments

Banon – cheap at twice the price

Lucy from Life and Cheese

“Meadow, oyster, mushroom, butter!” my friend Bronwyn cried on tasting Banon, the small, mottled goats cheese that emerged from its rustic chestnut leaf and raffia wrappings on Saturday nights’ cheese board.  What a wonderful surprise for my guests that such a strange little package could hold so much taste and bring forth such a delighted response. Wrapped in chestnut leaves soaked in wine or eau de vie (Marc), Banon is a distinctive unpasturised AOC goats cheese from the infertile but sunny soils around the town of Banon in Provence. The chestnut leaves help it last the winter and as it … Continue reading Banon – cheap at twice the price

Cheese boards, Uncategorized, Wine and cheese

Wine and cheese tastings

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Last night was the first time I added wine to my cheese board at Cheesy Bookclub and  the girls loved it! I’d tried a cheese and wine combo before inspired by Fiona Beckett’s post on her Cheeselover blog and wanted to share the revelation. Her pairing of Gewurtz, Munster and cumin seeds a) made me feel like a true cheese person, and b) was a sublime combination. A new turn on my journey as a cheese nerd – wine and cheese. But if I had a strong cheese to eat at the end of a cheese tasting, what would go … Continue reading Wine and cheese tastings

Bloomy rinds, Cow, Goat, Review, Uncategorized5 Comments

Goat versus cow – Over the moon

Lucy from Life and Cheese

I was in the garden today when my friend Jenny bought in a pressie – two Over the Moon camemberts – one goat, one Jersey cow. And like me last week, she’d had a great cheese tasting experience. She’d been traveling down from Auckland and had stopped in at Over the Moon’s shop in Putararu. Over the Moon is boutique cheesemaking company in the heart of the Waikato.  Jenny ended up in their tasting room where, in her words, a lady sliced cheese after cheese for her to sample. She said she only went in to go to the bathroom! We … Continue reading Goat versus cow – Over the moon

Cheese geekery, Goat, Review2 Comments

Why I love buying from a cheese monger

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Buying cheese from a cheese monger is a new experience for me and one I really recommend. I love that you can take time to taste, savour and compare cheeses so you find one that is right for you and your cheese-eating occasion. And ever better sometimes you get to geek out with a fellow cheese person. I had one of those delicious experiences last week with Ludovic Avril from Le Marche Francais. This is a little hidden gem of a shop, tucked upstairs in the Woolstore at 262 Thorndon Quay. It is becoming a regular pilgrimage. I always look … Continue reading Why I love buying from a cheese monger

Cheese boards, Hard cheese, Review1 Comment

Grandma Singleton’s Red Leicester

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Standing at my local supermarket the other day I had a cheese dilemma as I was confronted by a sea of ordinariness. Newtown New World doesn’t do artisanal cheese and, like a junkie, I was afraid I would miss my fix of exceptional fromage. The search was on to see what was the best they could offer. And today Grandma Singletons Red Leicester was best of class. British cheeses are a mystery to me, they seem the much plainer cousin of those glamour French fromages, the exotic Spanards and the rumbunctous Italians. The Brits seem a little more pedestrian, a … Continue reading Grandma Singleton’s Red Leicester

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Perail de Brebis – an ice cream of a cheese

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Oh thank you Mr Marche Francais and thank you ewes of Aveyron – your Perail de Brebis was velvet for my mouth, rich cream for my soul! Who would’ve thought such a thin frisbee of a cheese could envelope my mouth so fully and so completely? It looked like a wide, flat Camembert, only a centimetre or so deep, with a delicate dusting of off-white surface mould. But wow, when cut, this was no chalky, supermarket camembert. This little beauty flooded our cheese board with the most glorious, silky paste, like ice cream melting on a summer’s day. A delightful … Continue reading Perail de Brebis – an ice cream of a cheese

Cheese boards, Mountain cheese1 Comment

The safe and summery hands of Comte

Lucy from Life and Cheese

Selecting a cheeseboard for a group of friends is one of my favourite foodie things. You have to match the cheese to both the folks and the occasion, and of course for us in Wellington, you are limited by the cheeses available. And whilst I love ‘extending’ my palate and those of my erstwhile companions, I also know that some palates are more pedestrian than others. On nights like these I employ the balanced strategy to my cheese board – where I make sure I have one guaranteed crowd-pleaser to balance out an other potentially more difficult cheese. At times … Continue reading The safe and summery hands of Comte