f13.net

Eh ?

Young (aged less than 60 days) unpasteurized (raw milk) cheeses are illegal in the US.

Edit: which are common in France so you have to smuggle them into the US if you want to eat them here

Odd.  Fair enough.

Cheese in the USA is wierd though. I once brought a pot of Stilton over for some friends and they treated it like an unexplored landmine.

Because trying new foods is not common.  When you say 'cheese' to an American they typically think cheddar, velveeta, Americcan, Colby, pepper jack, or Swiss.  Even blue cheese is given the stink eye by a lot of us.

Those cheeses are illegal because French Brie killed a bunch of people back in the 80's because it wasn't pastuerized and hadn't aged enough for for whatever it was that was in it to die off. It's not like it's an unreasonable thing, anything here that should be pastuerized is usually required to be.

Also, they probably eyed the stilton because to anyone who doesn't like blue cheese it smells like a rotten ass and look even worse. People here usually sort out whether they like blue cheese or are disgusted by them by the time they're out of elementary school and it's not something you change about.

Could have been worse: you could have taken some haggis with you.

No, we sort out bleu cheese by how much of it is in the ranch sauce we dip our buffalo wings in.

You guys should totally try blue cheese on gingerbread biscuits.

You don't want to eat anything sauce-based with blue cheese in it. In high school I worked in a Bar & Grille and the cook and I used to play a game called "What can you put in blue cheese dressing that people won't notice". The answer is anything that doesn't crunch. The greasy dust-bunnies from under the grille, crushed up dead bugs, boogers, and the contents of more than a few tied-off used rubbers. This was also a place where the Owner fished uneaten pieces of steak out of bus trays and re-used them to make sirloin tips, stew/soup meat, etc. This was a pretty fancy place in Columbus too, and he was rich as fuck so it wasn't like he was barely keeping the doors open. He also had me working there under the table while I was in high school and wanted me to sell bottles to people at school for double price and spit the profits with him. Greedy fucker, like he wasn't already making a profit from the retail price.

Oh, I know all the gross stuff that can go in food that customers won't notice.

Not that I've... had any experience doing that, of course.

Why are there sawn-off and revolver weapons listed as automatic?

That chart is wrong on the cheese side as well. I have seen many of those cheeses available at Whole Foods, even the ones that are name-protected.

If you went to any other western nation such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, etc, you'd find that we consider such cheeses a normal part of life, particularly Brie and Camembert. We make them locally, as well as importing some from France.

We don't die of them, and they're not some kind of rare French thing. You're in more danger from eating all that salami, etc.

It's sort of sad watching you talk about food.

We still import them from France too. The ones we import just have to be made from pasteurized milk and/or aged 60 days. I forget if it's just one or both. It also doesn't matter where it's from, it's not like other country's cheeses are immune to that rule and we only enforce it against France. It's just that France makes the largest variety and largest ammount of cheeses that break that rule. So you can still buy any of those cheeses in the states as long as they comply with our regulations.

It's also not like the pasteurization requirement came out of thin air. Most of the time they're perfectly fine to eat however they're made. But in at least one instance a batch was bad enough to kill enough people that something had to be done. Same with milk. Same with fruit juices. Frankly, I'm glad all that shit has to be pasteurized. Drinking unpasteurized milk or juice is as fucking stupid as not getting vaccinated and comes from pretty much the same mindset.

As far as whatever you meant about "all that salami" being worse for us, I doubt there's anywhere near the bacteria count in a piece of salami as there is a glass of raw milk. If you just meant worse in general, it probably is. But whatever your country's diet considers normal you guys are almost as unhealthy as us - especially concerning heart disease. Now Japan, there's a country who's diet we should copy for healthy hearts. I wonder how much unpasteurized soft cheese they eat. It says something that a country that came up with natto and egg enema omlets turns it's nose at soft cheeses.

Cheese is rare as shit in Japan, and expensive.  Honestly though, I'll pass on the natto. chotto nai.

Your forum name would make an awesome soft cheese though...

"I'd like a half pound of the Brellium and a bag of the toasted crackers please!"

Not an attack against you, but oh the irony.

Yeah, I avoided that one too.  Seemed too on the nose.

Really? I put it in there almost on purpose. Probably because a batch of apple juce that killed a dozen dozen kids because a migrant worker put a gound apple in the bin was enough to get the FDA to enact broad regulations, but this latest thing won't cause anything to happen. We'll probably have to wait for someone to storm a mother/baby unit and kill three dozen fetuses in utero to get anything done.

And then, only because the pro-lifers got involved with the killing of fetuses. Hell, the two demographics eating themselves would probably open up a quantum singularity of stupid.

Much as I didn't want to be part of the first politics of cheese diversion raw milk (unpasteurized) cheeses are illegal to sell in Australia too. There's a number of food fans and cheese producers who get really angry about it. Our local cheeses are pretty good, but apparently there's some interesting flavors you just can't do.

The only way to square that circle is to arm all foetuses.

GUYS, I JUST DIDN'T KNOW.  STOP MAKING IT INTO AN ARGUMENT, I JUST DIDN'T KNOW.

Yeah, stop making baby Ironwood cry! You meanies!

*pulls Ironwood closer and gently strokes his head* There! There!

YEAH WELL MAYBE YOU CAN EAT SOME UNPASTEURIZED CHEESE AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!

I, swear to god, shit you not, actually thought it was a cheese.

I came here to a fresh page 34 of the Awesome/Funny Political Pictures thread expecting awesome/funny political pictures.

I walk away disappointed.  :heartbreak:

We now have an official cheese thread.

 :why_so_serious:

I typically eat rosemary or wasabi hardened goat cheese on peppered water crackers, with a dash of fruit spread on top to even out the taste.  It's pretty yum.

This is what brie is meant to look like

(http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1161/briec.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/briec.jpg/)

I'm pretty sure if you pasteurise it or let it get too old then it goes all stodgy.

And Ironwood agrees with me.

He hasn't disagreed with you explicitly, so I think that's a fair assumption.

Mozzarella and tomatoes with styrian pumpkin seed oil. Some brown bread to go with it. Perfect in summer.

Well next time you'll Google before asking a question on a board full of Geeks, won't you.

Fixed.

Did someone say cheese?
(http://www.seetheartinme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Gudbrandsdalsost-Norwegian-brown-cheese.jpg)

I'm confused (easily done!) This cheese thread in the politics forum - am I meant to be talking about my favourite cheese, why I can't get my favourite cheese, why cheddar should only be made in Cheddar, unpastuerised cheese, why cheese with fruit in it should be banned or how the US cheese processing methods contribute to climate change?

 :uhrr:

Fixed.  And we have a cheese thread in the politics forum, which is just outstanding.

So now we can have some cheese with all the whine. :why_so_serious:

I considered all those topics, but I settle for "Man does Xuris cheese look disgustingly dry."

You won the internet with that.

I think I saw this pic in the condom wall exhibit (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22837.0).

Okay, WAPs comment definitely put me off my cheese.   :ye_gods:

Well there is a slight similarity in smell.

And taste/texture? :why_so_serious:

Fuck your ignorance.

The cheese thread is in politics and you're infested with guns.

A year or two ago at work I was walking down the stairwell and smelled something awful. It was like somebody had farted as they passed, or hadn't showered in a week or two. Then, halfway down, I realized it was cheese... and my whole perception shifted 180 degrees. "Mmm," said the next thought, "I wonder if I can have some."

I immediately realized how insane that was and I really haven't been particularly eager for stinky cheeses ever since.

Think about it like this -- clothes fresh from the dryer smell really good, but the idea of putting a dryer sheet in your mouth is not good, and if you were thinking about it in those terms, the smell would lose some of its appeal.  It's not insane for a smell that would be bad in some contexts to translate to something that's good to eat.

We're in the middle of getting our entire kitchen ripped out and replaced with one that isn't fucked, so there's a high chance that we will have no means of cooking come Christmas. Therefore we have decided that our Christmas meal will consist of lots of really nice bread and cheeses.

I'm really looking forward to it!

I do love stinky cheeses, and soft cheeses, but I'm also a big fan of Nordic cheeses. Not overly keen on cheeses with too much fruit in them though, it's rare that that works for me.

Much better than guns.

Actually, I saw one of those reality shows on TLC or some shit about a chick who had a fetish for eating dryer sheets. She was eating them so much they were literally poisoning her but she couldn't quit.

[misunderstood context of post - ignore me]

Fixed.

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/82533/owlthing.jpg)

You cheese-haters did this to us didn't you? (http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/listeria-outbreak-prompts-cheese-recall/story-fneuzlbd-1226539994615)

The Brie in France taste the same as Brie made in America.  I don't believe in this unpasturized shit, glad we have it banned.

God my Norweigan friends are so proud of there brown cheese.  That and bread are literally all we eat when I come to visit.  All of us forign friends never have the heart to tell them we don't think it's really that great.   :awesome_for_real:

How can you possibly call our brown cheese "not that great"? :oh_i_see:

Its just kind of.......bland.

If it's the extremely hard brown cheese that is nearly identical to plastic in texture, than "bland" is being very generous. I wnet through almost a third of a block once thinking it just had a really thick rind. Tasting it didn't provide much evidence to the contrary.

Well they do sell pasteurised brie in France, so that probably tastes the same.

But unpasteurised and pasteurised are different. If they really taste the same to you then there's something wrong.

With your mouth.

It might help if you have a culture where eating food is considered inherently risky. A few outbreaks of listeria, salmonella and bovine spongiform encephalopathy would soon cure American hang-ups about food safety.

Well, I guess its possible thats all I had.  But just like Norway, every time I go to France (and I've been there quite a bit at this point), all my French friends ever seem to do is eat god damn Brie and baguettes all day long.  All of there friends and family as well.  And it all tasted the same.  So I can only assume the French hate the unpasteurized Brie as well.   :grin:
We broke off from England for a reason man.

Uncouth food heathens. :grin:

Unless Tale plans on making another appearance, this could probably be one of the few threads actually moved out of politics.

bland... went through almost a third of a block...

Seriously, just stop eating.

No, I'm sure that Americans are, on the whole, cunts that deserve what they get, in particular 9/11, school shootings, and kitten rape. Oh and Bengazi. I am sure I spelled it wrong, but, to be honest, the only -gazi with which I am really familiar is Fugazi (http://youtu.be/SGJFWirQ3ks).

That's why, for safety, I prefer my cheese has included penicillin... Roaring 40's blue cheese (http://www.igourmet.com/reviews/pwr/product-reviews/Cheese/Australia/p/213-Roaring-Forties-Blue-Select-Cut.html). My main pleasure over the coming holiday, along with good sour-dough bread and a nice deep red wine.

I must say carving slices from that cheese brick, if that's what people are talking about, didn't look that appetising. I've not had the opportunity to taste it though.

That looks great. Doesn't look like they export to the UK though   :sad:

I've had Roaring 40s, it shows up here at Whole Foods from time to time - quite good.

A local cheese-making place (what the fuck does one call such a place?  A Cheesery?) here in Denmark makes some stuff that is so god damn delicious that...well, it is tasty.  So wet that the room gets noticeably more humid when you unwrap it.  The problem is, it is so strong that it is absolutely toxic.  The smell is one thing - super powerful - but you cannot touch the thing without your fingers smelling like you fingered a rotten butthole or something, and the smell does not go away for at least 12 hours.  You cannot wash it away with anything.  Just deadly powerful.   We even tried using those disposable latex gloves to handle it, but you would still manage to get it on your skin.   We had to stop buying it.  Also, words cannot do justice to the sort of flatulence it caused.  So good.  Now we just give it to my wife's grandfather as a gift, because his sense of taste and smell is almost gone.

So the pinnacle of the cheesemonger's art is cheese that actually you cannot actually eat or even be in the same room with except for people lacking a sense of taste or smell. That seems very.... meta somehow.

American cheese is shit though. Y Fenni 4 lyfe yo.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Bleh.  I'm glad I'm lactose intolerant.

:ye_gods: /  :grin:

A nice aged hard cheese like an artisanal cheddar will only have trivial amounts of lactose remaining.

Yep, half my family is lactose intolerant, and eating hard cheese is supposed to be fine. I solved the problem by being a choosy motherfucker who doesn't like cheese to begin with.  :awesome_for_real:

Also, I seem to remember reading about casu marzu (a Sardinian uhhhh... cheese delicacy) in these forums a few years back, so cheese is definitely Serious Business. BTW, don't google casu marzu if you just ate / are just about to eat.

I'm not.  I really love cheese, cheese sauces, cream sauces and cheese cake.  They don't love me for the most part.

Luckily, mine's gotten better and I've been able to more accurately pin down what gives me problems.   I can eat most cheeses and dairy products on their own, but combined with other foods they become a problem.  Also, volume. 

And sometimes, I'll just say "fuck it", eat the cheese (or whatever), and deal with the digestive consequences.  My time in Normandy was full of digestive discomfort, but it was rather tasty.

I do the same with bread.  Life isn't worth living without a bit of bread now and then.
Me, too, but the lactose intolerance gives me a convenient excuse which isn't met with the same disapproving looks as when I say, "I don't like cheese except in extremely light amounts and nearly burnt with very particular combinations of food."

I assume you mean the actuall stuff called "American Cheese" (which is not technically cheese at all usually) and not "cheese from America" since the latter would make your statement totally spurious.

I'm a freak.  I love most non super stinky cheeses. 

However I have a sick love of:

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnxwg6sg921qm8bwgo1_500.jpg)

o=On Ritz crackers.

I tried getting a different kind of cheese each time I went to the store but I've been stuck on this stuff for a few months now.

(http://www.kerrygold.com/images/sized/images/uploads/dubliner_cheese-425x435.png)

I eat a 7oz block every 3-4 days.

It may have been jumping the gun to move this thread out of politics.   :awesome_for_real:

I really learned to love blue cheeses when I worked for Whole Foods. It's a good thing that they forced me to learn the whole department (I was a wine and beer buyer), because I learned that honey + blue cheese = awesome.

We end up using a lot of good cheeses, and my kid will eat just about any (with the exception of cheeses that contain hot peppers). Bison sliders topped with Manchego are full of win.

Have any of you with opinions about cheese spent much time in France, experiencing a range of French cheeses? I don't want to hear anti-French sentiment, I'm asking for gourmet travel stories, on the topic of how this thread began.

I have French relatives who own a Bordeaux chateau. I've cycled across France twice from west to east, once in the north and once in the south. I also stayed with my relatives for a wedding and a family gathering, so all up I've probably spent three months there.

The French gourmet tradition is one of the greatest things that exists in humanity. I once helped prepare a seven-course meal with matching wines, under the direction of a friend who is a chef from Versailles. We had of course a range of cheeses involved, but the whole experience was like my digestive system had sex with Scarlett Johansson seven times.

As opposed to hating Americans and wishing for 9/11s and dragging this thread into politics as was predicted above, I hate people dismissing things I hold dear, which are declining due to cultural imperialism and multinational brands.

In junk food terms, it's like twinkies ended for real, and all that existed was dry sponge cake. And there was a future thread saying "fuck yeah, sponge cake!". Or something.

Yes. My honeymoon was two weeks at a relatives villa in Mougins near Cannes - the town where Picasso spent the last years of his life. We spent most of the time eating with meals at L'Armandier (and briefly met the legendary Roger Vergé before his retirement) and the Feu Follet (as it was back then) - but our favourite was the Bistrot de Mougins which we liked a lot more for some reason (lack of pretension?). They had a fantastic foie gras and the cheese selection was to die for.

And I also agree about dismissing things I hold dear - which is why I won't have a word said against British cheeses (unless it's Wensleydale with fucking cranberries).

Spent a lot of time in France as a kid, and we ate a lot of cheese, but I wasn't exactly a gourmet between the ages of 5-10. Not that I am now, but I'm at least appreciative and attentive to nice food!

One thing that I do remember though is that the French were very nationalistic about their cheese - it was impossible to get Italian cheeses for instance, no Parmesan!

I lived in France for five years and travelled fairly widely. I loved Brittany and the St Malo area particularly and, while the area is more famous for its seafood, there are a lot of great cheeses there too, the local area has a lot of dairy farms and creameries so they make a lot of artisanal cheeses.

A thing that particularly stood out for me is that even supermarket cheese in France is really, really good. You can buy brand-name cheese from the refrigerated racks and it will be much better cheese than you would find at a deli counter in the US or UK. When you are actually at a proper cheese counter then the needle just goes off the dial. It might be that there are awesome artisan specialty shops in the US but, for the most part, the stuff you can buy over there from national chains like Wholefoods or Trader Joes is crap.

Re: British cheese, wendsleydale has no power to annoy me in a supermarket when I can choose from 90 or more varieties of bad cheddar stretching across 28 feet of refrigerated display, but only a token brie and feta in the non-cheddar section.

Wendsleydale with (insert fruit) would be a blessed relief in our local tesco.

Thank heaven for waitrose.

I mean, can the people eating all that cheddar even tell the difference between brand 47 and 48? If they only eat cheddar is it likely they are people seeking that much choice.....

Not all cheddar is created equal...

It is a fact widely acknowledged even amongst my French friends that Britain has better cheese than France. That's not to say that Sainsbury's Cheddar is a revelation in the dairyman's art but there are so many fantastic regional cheeses in Britain that don't get the recognition they deserve abroad.

Certainly, I see that, and I can conceive of why a store might choose to stock as many as 4 or 5 types of cheddar before a second Lancashire or even a first Stilton.

But there are thousands of them.... Cheddars without end....

Waitrose is doing an interesting range of cheeses at the moment and I have been trying different ones on a whim. Epoisses is obviously always a great choice, but I have also enjoyed Saint Vernier (http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-151932-Waitrose+Saint+Vernier+Wine+Washed+Cheese,+France) and a semi decent Gouda. On the other hand, Västerbotten (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4sterbotten_cheese) tasted like PVA glue unfortunately, and had an odd texture. I think I'll be trying their Morbier next.

I also picked up some Oxford Isis (http://www.oxfordfinefood.com/oxford-isis-cheese.html/) recently; I'd rate it as pretty good.

Yeah, Waitrose has some nice cheese.  I like Cheddar, the cheese and the guy, and there is a lot of different kinds.  They do taste different, though.  Well, the good ones I think.  I was also lucky enough to live within walking distance of Borough Market and there are some awesome cheese shops in there.  There's a nice French one named Mons Cheesemonger and there's a branch of Neal's Yard, too.  There must be about a dozen cheese shops and delis.  There's an Iberian deli that I hadn't tried but intended to at some point.  Next time.

I've been to France on different trips about 5 times now, for a total of around 2 months time.  Every time I've gone to visit various French/Euro friends, whom take me around to the see the sites and eat, primarily.  Went to a wedding with a big dinner like you mentioned, though I'm sure not nearly as extravagant (didn't have 7 courses with different wines paired to each one, but still very nice).  Been to many various parts (Paris, Alsace region, Moulins, Southern, ect).

I like French Food.  I've had just about every sort of French soft/hard cheese whose names I can't pronounce shoved down my throat, and I liked most of them.  I've enjoyed all my trips.

Having said that, I really don't think the food, cheese, or even wine is anything to go crazy over.  May be a taste thing, but I find the harder aged cheeses to be vastly superior in flavor to the majority of the cheeses on the chart that sparked this jihad.  Most of the French soft cheeses are either various levels of bland or way to pungent in a bad bad way.  I'm still fine with eating them, and enjoy spreading them on bread or having them used in what ever dish, I just didn't find them to be superior to the artisanal aged cheeses I can find in America and elsewhere.  Once more, when getting various said French cheeses in America, made by American dairies, I've found the flavor to be very similar to what I had in France.  Maybe pasteurization only kills the flavor of the cheeses I don't like, I don't know.

Overall, I consider French Food to be average.  They do some shit really well (the sauce based dishes and pastries are world shattering), but I find a lot of the food to be merely ok, or even boring (though I discovered Steak Tartar while visiting, found I really liked it, and have ordered some every time I've gone to visit.  Which has scared the hell out of other friends and family).  After all this time, I've still not been able to figure out what the hype around French food is, and have dismissed it off to trendiness and/or hype.  Especially when I've found Italian, Spanish, and even Japanese food/culture to absolutely destroy the French's on a massive scale.

I'm seriously not trying to troll you with this.  You asked about people with experience, and I'm giving it.  I still thinks its all tasty, but on a personal level when I hear this:
I'm just not seeing it, in the slightest.  But hey, to each their own.  Obviously you and many others are very passionate about French food and cheese.


To all the Brits, can you link some examples of what you all consider to be your amazing cheese's?  Not sure if I've tried many of the strictly British styles, and I have a feeling they may be more up my ally.

If you prefer hard cheeses then I'd suggest a nice Cheshire or Wensleydale which are crumbly and fairly sharp cheeses that go really well with fruit.

Double Gloucester makes a very nice alternative to cheddar.

Sage Derby is a very flavourful cheese made with sage and sometimes mint.

Y Fenni is one of my favourite cheeses, it's a mature cheddar with mustard seeds and ale.

Caboc is a really nice choice to finish a meal with.

Finally a decent Somerset brie is at least as good as any French version.

Red Leicester makes the best grilled cheese sammiches.

Red Leicester is probably my fav British cheese.  My father in law swears by the Stilton from Darbyshire which is a blue cheese. 

I'm a big fan of a good Yarg

British cheese tradition also spawned British chutney tradition, which can be more impressive than the cheese.

There are several hundred different types of British cheese and there is no way that this thread will do justice to them. But anyway:

Everyone's talking about the well known types of cheese, but if you dig around, you can find some great cheeses elsewhere - my parents ran a restaurant in West Wales for 35 years and had a regular supply of local welsh cheeses  so we had Llanboidy (http://www.llanboidycheese.co.uk/farmhouse.htm), Pant Mawr (Cerwyn (http://www.pantmawrcheeses.co.uk/cawscerwym.htm)), Llangloffan (http://www.carmarthenshirecheese.co.uk/cheese_llangloffan_smoked.php), Perl Las Blue (http://www.cawscenarth.co.uk/section/4/1/perl-las-cheese/c8de4ac706db752c7eac4d862d231ecd), Golden Cenarth (http://www.cawscenarth.co.uk/section/6/1/golden-cenarth-cheese) (which is like camembert - fantastic for baking and then having with crusty bread and wine ) and Smoked Caerfili (http://www.cawscenarth.co.uk/section/7/1/smoked-caerfilli-cheese). But you can pretty much only order those cheeses direct from the supplier and may not find them in supermarkets at all.

I'm currently very much liking Tunworth (http://www.hampshirecheeses.co.uk/) which you can get from Waitrose (and I'm hoping my local shop still has some) and I've also found out that a lot of farms near us produce lots of goats cheese. My current favourite is Wobbly Bottom (http://www.wobblybottomfarm.co.uk/default.aspx) but that's because of the name more than the cheese. So puerile!

Cheddar gets a bad rap because it usually has a load of food colouring added and the sweet tasting, mild stuff you regularly find in supermarkets is one step away from the processed crap you get - but a decent, mature, cave aged cheddar is entirely different. I very much like the Wookey Hole cave aged cheddar from Ford Farm (http://www.fordfarm.com/) which is proper PDO West Country cheddar and was the supreme champion at last years International Cheese Awards (http://www.internationalcheeseawards.co.uk/news/2011-results).

Finally - as Rattran already mentioned cheese on toast - I again heartily endorse Iain's recommendation of Y Fenni (http://www.internationalcheese.co.uk/products/y-fenni-cheese#.UNQ7_3dKTTo) because it's fantastic to use in Welsh Rarebit (grated cheese mixed with egg, a splash of beer, seasoning and grilled).

Is it lunchtime yet?

Can we have a steak tartare thread? Golly its yum. Basically the only thing I look forward to if forced to eat french..

On topic: I like hard sharp cheeses. And Swiss cheese with mushrooms on a burger...

Well, I ran down to Whole Foods and was able to have them carve off a hunk of Wensleydale for me.  Just tried, and its really damn good.  Thanks for the recommendation! 

I'll try to keep some of the other names in mind in the future, but looks pretty hard to get alot of these British varieties.

I always thought the French did cheeses, breads, and pastries better than everyone else - I don't think French when I'm looking for a main course.

I like Italian and Indian breads more than French.  I do like French food, though, when I'm out, about and rich.  Which is now never.  :)

I'd put our bread here up against anyone's, personally.

I miss the french bread from the southern New Jersey coast. Crusty outside, soft inside, beautiful. Just made for cheese steaks.

One of the cheese stalls in my towns market (usually one is there on a Saturday) is a local guy, and gets a goat cheese from a farm in the village i grew up in, just down the road. The produce just a few dozen cheeses a year. If i was in certain parts of Europe this wouldn't be an unusual thing to say, but as a denizen of Essex it is.

My current fave is one of Sainsburys finest range Lancashires, its fantastic as is but also melted.  I got an Appenzeller (Swiss) today from different stall, to go with a nice brown rye levain from the bread stall.  He had a nice looking Morbier too but we already have a boxed selection in the fridge for Xmas.