cheese!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 05, 2007 1:15 AM and is filed under Whatever.

While driving through France, Mrs. and I discovered the wonders of cheese.   During the ten years that followed, I spent thousands of dollars on cheese, hoping to match the glory and stank of those French cheeses.  Alas, it was a damn waste of money.  When cheese shops gave me samples, the morsels always tasted crazy good.  But when I got home, well, it inevitably tasted like shit.  According to a PBS show I saw, the USDA requires cheese sold in America to have been pasteurized.  And out goes a layer of flavor.

Last weekend I was in Columbus, visiting the artists.  I got inspired at a market, and blew $35 on cheese.  As per usual, it tasted like yuck.  I (re)vowed never to buy cheese again.  But then...on a lousy-tasting blue cheese (Valdeón) from Spain, there was a quarter inch of yellowish rind.  Ooooooooh mama.  That was the taste I've been after.  This weekend we went to Trader Joe's.  Damn that Joe can trade.  All three cheeses from Joe were sick cheap, and off the charts good.  I'm back on the cheese wagon baby.

Unrelated...On Sunday, Mrs. dragged me to an Ethiopian restaurant.  In case you've never tried Ethiopian food (I have, five too many times), it sucks mightily.  It's bland and overly spicy.  I'd rather starve than eat that crap.

Even more unrelated...Someone once gave me a pair of Andrew Calhoun cassette tapes.  Though I hadn't bothered to listen to the tapes, a year later I found myself playing 500 with Andrew.  Afterwards I gave his music a listen.  One line from this song stuck with me.  I'm taking it out of context, but it goes: "I'm searching for a better way...a real place to live...".

Lately I've been thinking about where I live.  Without some redirection, my town will likely devolve into an eyesore within 10 years.  What to do, what to do.  Beyond voting, I don't have the patience to get involved in local politics, or align myself with any new or existing institution (religious, social, etc).  So...can a town be resurrected through non-institutional means?

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    • Tuesday, June 05, 2007 2:31 AM Charles wrote:
      I'm with you on the cheese, but very against on Ethiopian food. Ethiopian is one of my absolute favorites - I'm not sure I could ever get sick of it. On top of the taste of delicious berbere, there is the aesthetic wonder of eating the plate as your utensil...Wonderful.

      Different strokes, I guess.
      Reply to this
    • Tuesday, June 05, 2007 6:03 AM Noise wrote:
      Pittsburghers don't generally let their neighborhoods go to hell very easily. and they're very monkey-see, monkey-do, so it's key that you make your property look as awesome as possible from the street--keep up the "curb appeal". Change, as they say, starts at home.

      Re: Ethiopian food ("the drink that eats like a meal!"), where's the place in Pittsburgh?
      Reply to this
      1. Tuesday, June 05, 2007 9:42 AM Old Man Neill wrote:
        Abay.  http://www.abayrestaurant.com/.  It's inexpensive.  I lived with an Eritrean chef for a whole year, and still don't like Ethiopian food, so I don't think there's much chance of it growing on me.  Trader Joe's is down the street, so go get some awesome cheese afterwards.
        Reply to this
    • Tuesday, June 05, 2007 9:43 PM aerieofgrace wrote:
      I totally agree with you re. Ethiopian food. The sponge bread creeps me out.
      Reply to this
    • Wednesday, June 06, 2007 3:17 PM ray wrote:
      there
      is
      no
      cheese
      in
      the
      gambia.

      well, there is, but it's really expensive. i can only afford to buy it on it's sell-by date when it's half off. When there's none on sale (there hasn't been for a week), I begin contemplating drastic measures, like suicide or murder. I LIVE on cheese. I love cheese.

      part #2: oh my GOD, how can you NOT like Ethiopean food????? everyone does!!! i don't, but i'm exceptionally picky, but all my friends are obsessed with it. I love the sponge bread, although i hated it when i first tried it, which was in Ethiopia, then Eritrea. But in DC? In DC, Ethiopian sponge bread is delishious.
      Reply to this
    • Thursday, June 07, 2007 5:52 AM Nadine wrote:
      Ironioc that the inventer of the pastuerization process is a frenchman...his last name Pasture or something rather. But yeah, the cheese was darn good and so were the bakeries....and also notice that they never refrigerate their eggs in the stores either. Pasureization has its place but flavor goes out the window
      Reply to this
    • Friday, July 27, 2007 7:41 PM margi wrote:
      I know what you can do....help me at the next big cleanup!!!
      I'll call...........
      Reply to this
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