I remember a few years back observing my family eat at the Olema Inn in West Marin. I was so sick that weekend. I laid in bed sweating out a fever, having delusions that the stuffed squirrels on the mantle were dancing around my bedposts. So when my sisters begged me to just come downstairs and sit at the table even if I didn’t feel like eating, I decided it was time to get a little fresh air (and escape those demonic squirrels). I stumbled downstairs, and sat in the sweet candlelit dining room admiring the menu and wishing that I could eat just a little something.
These days it’s common to ask if our meat is corn-fed, grass-fed, free-range etc. But at the Olema Inn, they went so far as to list whose field the cows had grazed on (The Turner’s field down the road a bit). At the time I thought this was a little too precious: do we really need to know that many details? Seriously, does it matter whose grass the cows consumed on what day? But the Olema Inn was two steps ahead of me. They understood that what your food eats, where it’s raised, and the conditions in which it’s raised greatly affect the taste and quality.
This morning, as I was strolling the aisles of my favorite natural grocery store, I spotted “Seaside Cheddar,” a rugged mature English Cheddar that’s unique in that the cows graze on grass right near the shore of an English farm, giving the cheese a distinct flavor and texture. “Try it,” the cheese man goaded me. He detailed how it would be different than any cheddar I’d ever tasted and instructed me to move it to the back of my mouth where I’d notice “small crunchy little pockets of salty flavor”. Yeah, Right. I doubted the cheese man. I wondered how he could be so enthusiastic about cheese at such an early hour. Yet again, the cheese man and the folks behind the Seaside Cheddar are two steps ahead of me. It’s an incredible, almost delicate cheddar, a word that generally doesn’t come to mind when people talk about cheddar. This cheese has your typical sharp, salty flavor, but it’s unique in that it almost crumbles like a parmesan. For a cows milk cheese, there’s a lot going on. It’s complex and delightful. And yes, pay attention: there are little air pockets in the cheese due largely to an effect of the aging process (calcium crystals form). Pick some up–you’ll see what I mean.
I sliced some with crackers. It would be lovely with apple wedges or on some crusty, toasted bread. Serve it room temperature so you can really appreciate the flavors. You can pick some up at your local Whole Foods this week (on sale for $7.99/pound) and reflect on the fact that the grass is greener across the pond–so different you can taste it.
This sounds excellent. I once had an earth-shatteringly good cheddar that a friend brought back from England, and it was just as you describe: incredible flavor, slightly crumbly, with little crystals. I would love to find one like it, so I'll give this a try. I hope my local Whole Foods carries it… I'll find out tomorrow!