Ewephoria, not surprisingly made out of sheep's milk, is a gouda style cheese made for Cheeseland, a Seattle importer of Dutch cheese, by a small farm in the Friesland province in northern Netherlands. Apparently aged sheep's milk cheese is "too gamy for American tastes," so Cheeseland worked with the Dutch farm to produce a cheese with "a sweeter and nuttier" taste solely for sale in the U.S. market to focus on the American sweet tooth. The Cheeseland website says, like typical marketing baloney, it "tastes like candy." If that were the case, candy would not be as popular among young children. Ewephoria is aged anywhere from 4 to 12 months (I see aging estimates that vary widely on different websites). I am assuming my "extra aged" cheese was aged toward the end of the longer time frame. I found that it is quite strong and quite dense, and still has a significant sheepy taste to it that I happen to like, although it may be a little more muted. Sweet is not a descriptive term I would have used to describe it, but all of the advertising literature uses the term. It may be a little sweeter than normal sheep's milk cheese, but calling it "candy" goes way, way too far. I'd not heard of this cheese until we saw it at DTLA Cheese in the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. I really like it, but I love all sheep's milk cheese and wouldn't prefer this over many other aged sheep's milk cheeses. Much of the information for this came from an on-line article at SFGate dated March 8, 2014.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Cheese: Paski Sir
Paski sir, Croatian for "cheese from the island of Pag," is just that, a sheep milk cheese from that Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea.
Pag is a long thin island that looks more like a peninsula, until you look closely and see that it has some small separation from the mainland which is easily connected by a road, just north of Zadar. The island environment is what makes Paski sir distinctive. The Velebit mountain range is just east of Pag island on the mainland. The mountains cause the Pag Bora, a strong, cool, dry east/west wind, which scatters a dry salt dust all over the island. As the salt dust falls on the moist vegetation, it sticks, and only the resilient and aromatic plant species can survive, such as Pag Sage. It is feeding on the salty grass and aromatic vegetation, that gives the Pag sheep milk, and thus its cheese, part of its distinctive taste. There are about 40,000 Pag sheep on the island, five times more than the 8,000 humans, and they are smaller and produce less milk than a normal sheep, at most about one-half liter a day. Only about 80 tons of the cheese is produced each year. Paski sir is aged variously and of course the aging deepens the taste of the cheese. I've seen references to Paski sir aged from 6 months to 18 months. I've had Paski sir twice, once obtained from the Cheese Cave in Claremont and once from DTLA Cheese in the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. You can see from the pictures that one of the cheeses was aged substantially longer: It is much more brown around the edges near the rind and has whitish crystals in the body of it. It is one of the 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die (p. 319).
Paski Sir |
This Paski Sir is aged longer than the one above. Darker edges near the rind and white crystals in the body. |
Paski sir is traditionally served chunked and crumbled with olive oil. I also read suggestions to serve it with prsut (Croatian prosciutto), salted anchovies or black olives, so I decided to try some in that way.
Paski Sir in olive oil, in anchovies packed in olive oil and plain. |
Friday, March 14, 2014
Food in Peru
In 2009 we visited Peru: Lima, Cusco, Aguas Calientes (near Machu Picchu) and Puerto Maldonado (in the Amazon rain forest near the Bolivian border). Until shortly before and preparing for our trip, I'd never had Peruvian food. To learn about it I started going to El Rico Pollo in San Bernardino. Now I am very fond of it and have been to several other Peruvian restaurants: (a) in Los Angeles at Qusqo and Mo-Chica; (b) in Boston at Incas Peruvian Cuisine; and (c) in Milford, Connecticut at Incas Restaurant.
In Lima, the capital, we had several meals. By far the best was a buffet at Brujas De Cachiche. It was a smorgasbord of traditional Peruvian food, all of it good. Included in a photo of one of my plates of food were two types of causa (yellow and green), pulpa (octopus) in a sauce, a mussel with a ceviche type preparation, ceviche, shrimp, trucha (smoked trout) and sliced avocado. Another plate included a large stuffed rocoto pepper and some other items that I've forgotten.
We ate at another fancy restaurant on a wharf going into the ocean which was disappointing for me. I got lobster thermidor and all I could really taste was the mashed potatoes that came with it. One of my friends got squid stuffed with rice and squid ink which he shared with me. It was unusual and good. Another friend got a dish which included octopus, scallops, shrimp and fish which was visually fun, but I didn't have an opportunity to try it.
Lobster thermidor |
Stuffed squid with squid ink. |
Seafood dish with octopus. |
One of my favorite meals was in Cusco at Incanto where we enjoyed alpaca steak and roasted guinea pig (cuy). We ate a much more forgettable meal in Cusco where I had alpaca steak that was not anywhere near as good and causa.
Guinea pig at Incanto |
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Guinea pig at Incanto prepared in a different way. |
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Alpaca at Incanto. |
Alpaca at Incanto prepared in a different way. |
Forgettable alpaca steak with causa. |
At the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel in Aguas Calientes I enjoyed rocoto pepper in quinoa sauce, smoked trout (trucha) with avocado, lime and capers, and some sort of a meat and potato dish that I don't remember particularly.
Rocoto pepper in quinoa sauce |
Trucha (trout) |
At Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica, 45 minutes by boat down the Madre de Dios River from Puerto Maldonado and adjacent to the Tambopata National Reserve, we stayed in mosquito net covered huts and ate in a wonderful log dining room and had wonderful local food. Some of the dishes I ate were local catfish and fried vegetables, palm hearts and spinach, yuca fries and a fruit plate with starfruit, passion fruit, papaya, watermelon and honey.
Catfish with vegetables |
Palm hearts and spinach |
Honey for dipping starfruit, passion fruit, watermelon and papaya |
Monday, March 10, 2014
Food of Beijing, China
In 2007 we took a trip to Beijing, China with Rachael, Nate and our baby grandchild. Rachael and Nate were living at the time in Tokyo and they made arrangements for us to have a wonderful English speaking guide in Beijing named Mrs. Li, who also had a Chinese speaking driver to take us around on our sight-seeing.
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Our Chinese guide, driver and van. |
China is a gastronomic Disneyland for foodies, with wonderful, varied and crazy looking and tasting dishes. This post is a collection of some of the foods we ate and saw while we were there. Since it has been awhile, and because we were dealing in Chinese with a Chinese native speaking English, I can't name what many of the dishes are, but still retain the memory of amazing food.
We visited a Szechuan restaurant for lunch that served some really hot food. Everywhere we went in Beijing, including this restaurant, the Chinese people were enamored with our grandchild's blond hair and blue eyes and couldn't leave her alone.
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Hot pork ribs. |
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Wonderful hot beans. |
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Squab, or baby pigeon. |
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The waitresses loved our grandchild. |
We had an evening meal that included an unforgettable dish of sweet and sour camel.
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Sweet and sour camel. |
We had another evening meal at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant which specializes in Peking Duck (Beijing was once named Peking). I was so looking forward to eating one of my favorite dishes in its hometown and came away disappointed that I like our American version better than the hometown version.
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Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant |
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Carving up the Peking (or Beijing) duck |
We visited a little village outside of Beijing and ate in a large cultural center. The pictures of our food are horrible as we were concerned that our taking pictures in that setting might offend someone. But it was an absolutely fabulous meal and was very inexpensive.
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Judy and Mrs. Li with youth dressed in Mao era garb. |
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With some people in cultural dress. |
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Surreptitious picture that turned out horribly. |
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Another horrible picture. |
Near the Great Wall of China, outside of Beijing an hour or two, we found one of our most favorite dishes: a pancake made on a wheel with egg and spicy red pepper sauce. We liked it so much that we tracked down the sauce at a supermarket in Beijing, but were later unable to obtain any more when we returned to the U.S.
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Tourist shops lining the walk up to the Great Wall. |
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Batter on a wheel and spreading on some red chile sauce. |
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Folding the egg and pancake up. |
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An amazingly wonderful folded pancake with egg. |
Finally, we found some very fun and colorful displays in stores.
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Durian in the supermarket. |
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Dragon fruit in the supermarket. |
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Dragon fruit cut-into halves. |
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Sausages in the supermarket. |
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Ribs - just laid out to be picked over. |
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Squid |
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Fruits |
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Fruits and vegetables |
My tastes have expanded and changed quite a bit in the last seven years, in part because of experiences like those we had in Beijing. I would love to go back to China just to eat. Amazing, amazing food.
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