It was a nice Sunday afternoon and we were able to get most of our outdoor chores done yesterday before and after watching what was a great Preakness horse race on TV. As BowlingWidow was quick to point out, a "girl" horse won that particular race for the first time in 85 years.
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A scene from one of the many tasting lines at the Cheese Festival
This weekend was the annual Seattle Cheese Festival at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. It's a tradition that has only been going on for a few years but we hadn't been there yet so we jumped at an impromptu chance to show up.
If we learned one thing today it's that cheese is very popular. Particularly when they're giving out free samples. There must have been 50 cheese makers there, ranging in size from Tillamook to the tiny Samish Bay Cheese Company in Bow, WA. And they came from as far away as the state of New York (Yancey's, from which we bought some really tasty extra sharp cheddar).
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Some favorites: we couldn't stop ourselves from buying them
I can't begin to rattle off all of the different types of cheeses but they were all there: Gouda, Dubliner, Gorganzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Asiago and so on. There were cheeses with Merlot in them as well as one with a wasabi/horseradish combination.
After sampling around 25 cheeses each and purchasing a few of our favorites, we concluded the afternoon with a pint of ale at the nearby Pike Place Brewery.
Yeah, it was a pretty good day.
5 comments:
I don't see any Wensleydale in your selection. You know that is the favorite of Wallace & Gromit, a pair that you should become acquainted with, if you're not already.
One of the most delightful experiences of our European living was trips to France, where the cheese is magnificent, and where, when you go to a farm to buy some and are taken into a cellar that probably dates back hundreds of years, you are asked when you plan to serve it -- that day, tomorrow, next week, etc. -- and then are given a cheese that will be best for that. Say what you want about the French, they know food.
I'm not a great cheese connoisseur, but I do love Gouda. Fortunately, they have a nice Gouda at Costco, since that's where I do all my grocery shopping. Sometimes they have samples of cheese at Costco too, but you don't have to wait in line.
I remember Wallace & Gromit. My good friend Bellingham Tim has the VHS recording and we've watched them in the "pre-DVD" days. Too bad they only made a few shorts.
We hope to make it to France someday to try some of that cheese.
Joe, if you go to Costco to try samples at 1:00 pm on a Saturday you'll wait in line. Of course it only may be line of four or five people. In any event, I'm a proponent of taking 3-4 laps around Costco on a weekend afternoon and essentially eating a "free" lunch. It takes the sting out of the $200-plus you have to cough up at the checkout.
I have an old friend whose son works for Samish Bay Cheese -- really enjoys it and is very proud of the organic angle. Also friends further north in Ferndale operate a handcrafted cheese store out of their barn.
And let's not forget the classic Python "Cheese Shop Sketch" :"I'm afraid we're just out of that one!"
Great to hear from you, David. That Monty Python sketch is one of my all time favorites (along with "Twit of the Year"). Fortunately the cheeses we encountered in Seattle weren't extremely runny.
Samish Bay shows up at the Everett Public Market when they're open later in the summer. The gouda in the photo is from them. I'm looking forward to using it in an omelette in the near future.
Joe
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