Cheese bores and other festive treats

Here in the Northwest corner of Europe, it is all things festive as Christmas comes around the corner. The question I tend to get around now is, “What’s your favourite cheese?” It’s kind of like asking a parent with several children, “Which one is your favourite?” I tend to tell the enquirer the one I’ve been eating a lot of lately. Sometimes it’s Boursin, sometimes it’s aged Gouda, and sometimes a nice Stilton. Depends on my mood, really.

People here in the UK strongly equate holiday eating with a cheeseboard. The sales of Stilton go through the roof as Christmas approaches. It is a good thing but I tend to buy Stilton all year round, myself. A salad isn’t complete in our house without some crumbled blue cheese on top. I am also lucky in that we have access where I live to more than one good cheese outlet. Bit spoiled for choice, really.

But I’m trying not to become one of these, which can be tough when you regularly eat a fair amount of cheese.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/13/modern-tribe-cheese-bore-catherine-bennett

In fact, I’ve reined it in recently. I now usually just dish up three cheeses, as opposed to five. I also try not to babble on about the cheese maker and how nice s/he is, and so forth. I mention what the type is and set out the knives, and let the cheese do the talking. Nobody really cares if cheese makers are good people are not, in the end – the taste is the thing. Nobody cares whether you import the wrappings from an 12th generation somebody in Tuscany if the cheese isn’t tasty.

May you all have a very festive holiday season with plenty of dairy products, and see you all in 2015.