Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Reluctant Cheese-Eater

So I'm going to gloss over -- Qu'Importe, our local winebar, which I'm sure I'll have further occasions to describe, although at the risk of a seriously run-on (perhaps even 10Kish) sentence, good but oily bruschetta and good but pricey wines by the glass, Le Potiquet, the restaurant we visited in Lyon, which was really exceptional, with a young, energetic, ambitious cook who turned out sumptuous, but ingredient-based food, while also manning the front of the house, and Boki, the Chinese take-out place we tried in the Paquis (so-so) -- because through sloth and moving in, I've lost the necessary clear memory of what we ate and how it tasted, but, but, that doesn't mean I don't have something to say today -- and that is about cheese. I'm not really a cheese eater. In fact, I didn't eat cheese for many years, and I'm still quite nervous about stinky cheese. But I'm going to try it all here, since Switzerland is known for its dairy. And I started today with a Tomme de Valais from the Carouge Saturday market.

This tomme was an easy introduction. Tomme is generally a low-fat cheese (or so says Wikipedia) and this was true to its nature. It didn't quite melt in your mouth, nor did it interact with my red wine the way a fattier cheese might, creating that delicious combination of acid wine and fat that goes so well together. But it wasn't particularly sharp or pungent either, and very easy eating with bread, olives and the aforementioned glass of vino. I can't say there was much remarkable about it, but I would call it smooth.

So that's my first foray. We'll see if MP can convince me to be more daring over the days and months to come.