Behold! The Power of Cheese!

[IggytheBorg]

I fucking love cheese. From your more common, store brand, found in every supermarket dairy case cheddar, to weird exotic imports found only in specialty shops. I once bought a wedge of yak's milk cheese. Pretty good, actually, despite the greenish tinge.

As a general rule, anything imported from Switzerland is going to be good, because the Swiss have very strict quality control standards. Some of my favorite cheeses come from Switzerland. Emmental (the one w/ the holes that we often think of as "Swiss" cheese) is good, but a little dull. I like Gruyere, and it's smoky undertones better, but even better than both are Appenzellar and tete du moine, some of the most strongly flavored cheeses out there. Appenzellar has notes of fruit to it, along w/ a musky assertiveness. Tete du moine has a weird but delicious interplay of sharp and piercing with sweet. Some of the ebst there is, IMO

Anyway, I was curious if any more of my brain dead brethren share this particular passion? What are tour favorites and why?

[Shit Dickface]

Gruyere = great. I fully admit to only having gotten into cheese within the past few years (coming from East Texas where cheddar's damn near a delicacy), but cheese-related shit I've grown to love:

-Aged parmigiano reggiano
-Bufala mozzarella
-Fried halloumi
-FETA.
-The aforementioned Gruyere.
-Fontina
-Havarti
-Gouda

And there's probably others, but those are the ones that are right off the top of my bean.

BONER-INDUCING THREAD.

[BillyG]

Oh god yes. I am a cheese fiend. When I was a young buck I would grab a block of cheddar and eat it while watching cartoons. I put cheese on everything. And everything with cheese I want extra cheese. Gouda is heart warming. My dad's wife makes snack plates around the holidays with gouda and these crackersohmotherofgodonapogostick.

Bleu cheese (why does Firefox always tell me bleu is spelled wrong? NOTICE THE CHEESE PART FIREFOX) is my favorite. I love queso fresco. Bless Mexico for their amazing cheesetastic dishes. And Italy. I don't even know what all cheeses you use, but as a country, you make excellent choices.

Oh, and I don't like spinach, like at all, but there is a Houston chain I love that makes this spinach and feta burger. WET DREAM. All thanks to the feta.

[Ed Hocken]

Iggy's doppleganger:

[Ari]

Me and the wifey have been on a cheese bender lately thanks to Trader Joes. A nice hunk of bleu cheese makes my fucking day.

[Lesley]

Oh, and I don't like spinach, like at all, but there is a Houston chain I love that makes this spinach and feta burger. WET DREAM. All thanks to the feta.

Considering how much you love cheese and hate spinach, how do you feel about spinach and artichoke dip?

[BillyG]

I actually LOVE spinach dip. I just don't like raw spinach, all by itself. Just staring at me. Plotting.

[Shit Dickface]

Plotting to get in my fuckin' mouth.

[Howard]

Raw spinach is awesome. Cooked spinach? *shudder*

[Ari]

Cooked spinach= Paul Blargh

[Martin]

Cheese is the semen of god.

Yes, I do love cheese.

[Ed Hocken]

I can't eat a lot of cheese. Pizza, yes. On burgers, no.

[Abraham Smashington]

e've cut down on the amount of cheese we eat *sniff*, but yes I'm a cheese whore. The more the merrier.

[Matt]

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEESE.

it's what's for dinner.

I've yet to have a cheese that I didn't like (yet to try any of the really stinky ones, like Limburger, though). Love Bleu Cheese especially.

[IggytheBorg]

Blue cheese ain't for everyone; definitely an acquired taste. But I'm a huge fan of most kinds out there. The Danish Saga & stuff are enjoyable, but if you've never tried one of the "real deal" imports, like Gorgonzola, Roquefort or Stilton, you really have to do yourself the favor. Roquefort is my favorite hands down, because it's the strongest of them. I'm dying to get my hands on some Spanish Cabrales. I think the only blue cheese I tried & didn't like was Blue Cheshire from England. I'm not a huge fan of Cheshire to begin with (kind of reminds me of Velveeta, for some reason), and adding the blue molding to it just doesn't jibe, IMO. Maytag Blue (yes, the same Maytag that makes the washing machines; the chairman also owns Anchor Steam Brewing) is sublime, as is Point Reyes, an American blue from CA, I think. They're also fairly easy to find in supermarkets, in my experience.

Before I forget to mention it, I have to sing the praises of Wegman's. They have an imported cheese section that is out of this world for a supermarket chain. There's 2 w/in a decent drive of my home, and my wife & I love love LOVE them. We stay together until we get to the cheese section, and then she goes off to do the rest of her shopping and leaves me there for an hour or more, searching thru the displays and consulting my "Cheese Primer" by Stephen Jenkins (indispensible reading matter for the serious cheese fanatic). If there's one near you, give 'em a whirl.