As far as favorite cheeses go, I absolutely love Tillamook's extra sharp white cheddar. Followed closely by Jarlsberg. True Emmentaler Swiss cheese is amazing. I do love some of the more flavorful/funky cheeses, like Appenzeller.

For anyone near Puyallup that is into cheese, there is a great cheese shop called 'My Cheese Shoppe' if you're looking to expand your horizons or looking for cheeses outside of what the supermarkets typically offer:
http://www.mycheeseshoppe.com/

The big block of Kerrygold Dubliner from Costco is my new favorite. However eating a cheese from a town that the cheese is named after is highly recommended. I've had Gruyere cheese in Gruyere and it was amazing.

I do miss the hot bowls of Queso and chips that every Tex-mex restaurant in Texas serves.

Oooh this thread needs more cheese shop recommendations...

I love The Cheesemonger in Leavenworth. Amazing shop with tons of cheese, and the owners are friendly as hell. Every time I go in there they feed me enough samples to qualify as a full lunch.
http://www.cheesemongersshop.com/

Love that place. Will visit on Sunday!

Cambazola

Buffalo is simply the Italian word for water buffalo (which is in the bison family, not cattle). Nearly 100% of water buffalo milk produced in Italy goes to the production of mozzarella. I know, I used to export buffalo-based ice cream from the south of Italy, and it was darned hard to secure production inputs.

There is almost zero buffalo-based mozzarella made in the States---it all comes from cattle's milk. This is not quite an apple-to-orange comparison, but it does account for the different in both flavor and texture.

By the way, recent history in Italy has be replete with buffalo milk scandals. Not all is well with that industry, unfortunately.

Here is a particularly southern Italian way to enjoy a good reggiano parmigiano. Hive off hunks of it (break it off with the blade of your knife, no need to cut it) and drizzle with honey. Eat. I am not kidding, the salt crystals and the glutamates within the cheese blend perfectly with the sugar crystals and enzymes in the honey. There was an older Italian gentleman, a business partner of mine, who used to dine on this whenever he was outside of Italy, because he couldn't bear to eat the cuisine of any other country but his own. That's retarded, but his solution was superb.

By the way, I hate to sound like "that guy" but the parmigiano sold at Costco tastes like wax. It is barely, barely passable (yes, it is a staple in my house, but I grimace every time I eat it).

Southern Italy is rife with scandal, so milk scandal doesn't surprise me. I bet buffalo ice cream is goooooood.


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Italy, from Lazio (Rome) south is a total shyte-hole. Every square inch of it. Naples is a garbage-infested whorehouse. Calabria is ungovernable. Apulia is as third-world as you will find in the EU.

Only Sicily has redeemed itself, which is impossible for the decedents of Sicilian immigrants to believe. What a disaster of a country. It is no wonder Beppe Grillo has made such strides in politics. You think the U.S. is dysfunctional now? Go to Italy.

By the way, every third truck driver in the south is named Ahmed. Locals hate them. But they do the work. Hmmmm. Sound familiar?

The best cheese i ever had was when i lived in Belize for awhile in my early twenties. The dairy industry there is run by the Mennonites and they produced this incredibly tasting super sharpe white chedder that dang near crumbled apart when you sliced it....and it made the best sandwiches especially with some Marie Sharpes hot sauce.

Whatever that powdered chemical wonderfulness it is, that they put in the paper packets in a box of mac and cheese!!!!

Tillamook cheddar.
Buy 8-10 blocks and smoke them. In a couple of weeks make nachos with it and it will smell like bacon.

DETENTION, SIR!

You will stay after class and write "I will not eat preprocessed bullshit" a hundred times on the blackboard.

I need to give this a go. I specifically bought a cold smoker attachment for my smoker last year so I could smoke cheeses, just haven't gotten around to it.

Thank you for this!
I will definately have to check it out.

And, the cheese place in Leavenworth....will definately have to go check that place out next time I'm there.

As for favorite cheese. Tillamook Sharp Cheddar...perfection along with Triscuits.