Unexcused Absences

Monsieur with his “chariot de fromage” at Hostellerie de la Fontaine

By all means, when you are next grocery shopping in France, embrace the discovery process; don’t just buy some Brie or Camembert from the dairy cooler, but rather visit the cheese counter and ask the “maitre fromager” for un petit goût (a little taste). They are very knowledgeable, and most are more than willing to lead you through a flight of fantastic tastes that you won’t regret. Either that, or visit a street market (Paris has too many to count every single day, and even small villages have one market a week), where most time you will find a cheese seller. And don’t forget to order the cheese plate instead of a sweet desert when you eat out; many times the waiter is very knowledgeable about the cheeses, and will help you select a mélange of morsels to suit your particular taste.

If you remember my post from earlier this year, I identified four French cheeses we discovered that really hit the mark. Now that we’ve been back in France for almost a month, I’ve had the luck to discover a few more cheeses that just make my palate hum with excitement. Without further preamble:

First on the list is Saint Albray (Le Castelou sub-variety), which we discovered at the E. Leclerc supermarket in Auxerre our first day back in France. It resembles an orange-tinted brie on the outside, but the “wheel” is lobed, so it looks vaguely like a flower. It was only invented (discovered?) in the 1970’s, in the Basque region of France up against the Spanish border. It has a strong smell like Epoisses*, but the flavor is also strong, unlike the more subtle flavor of the Epoisses. This cheese caused us a bit of a start, because it was nowhere to be found in the multi-hundred-page book, the Cheese Lovers Companion. The Saint Albray itself isn’t so rare, we’ve seen it now in multiple grocery stores and street markets, but the “Le Castelou” variety, which has a stronger flavor, is one we’ve come across only the one time in Auxerre.

Next, we visited the Hostellerie de la Fontaine, the same place were we were first treated to the king of cheeses, Epoisses de Bourgogne, during our 2009 boat rental on the Nivernais Canal. Aisy Cendré is a cow milk cheese from Aisy-sous-Thil, a small town in northern Burgundy. Its production is similar to Epoisses, but during aging the small wheel is buried in wood ash (oak) for a month. The ash sticks to the rind, so the texture is oddly grainy, and takes a bit of getting used to, but the ash mellows the flavor and the taste is subtly delicious.

We actually first tasted Laguiole during our summer trip, one day after I published my first cheese post! It has many of the properties of Salers or Cantal; similar area where it’s produced (the south), similar cows, similar annual production (small), it even has basically the same texture and taste. But the flavor is a little more nutty, and the body is slightly creamier than a Cantal. We finally found it again today at the street market in Montargis. A fun, and somewhat obscure, find!

Rocamadour Chevre is to my taste way more flavorful than most un-aged goat cheeses. It comes from the south, ironically from the town where we first saw a French Bastille Day fireworks display this past summer. Many young goat cheeses are mostly “bite” without much underlying flavor, but this one stays with you. Fantastic when consumed on hot toast with a salad, even better when you throw in some black Greek olives.

We bought a small wheel of Tentation de St. Félicien at the street market in St-Mammès on the recommendation of the cheese vendor, and it (the cheese, not the vendor) lingered in our fridge for a few days, forgotten under the stack of Cantal, Salers and St. Albray we had stockpiled. When we were invited by our boat neighbors (Tom and Lou) to a group happy hour tonight, we dug it out and brought it over. Overlooked because of the other tasty treats, we left it on the counter for a couple hours before remembering it and cutting it open. By then it had warmed to room temperature, and the center of this already gooey, double crème cheese had gone completely liquid, and… Oh. My. God. As each person around the room took a bite, all conversation stopped in its tracks. No one had ever heard of this cheese, and we all sat stunned, wide-eyed, as we each in turn took a bite. This ain’t health-food; it’s north of 70% fat, the consistency of warm butter. They start with raw milk, then add crème for an unbelievable mild-sweet-floral-with-no-trace-of-tang taste. Think of the best butter you’ve ever had, only creamier and much more flavorful. If no one had been looking I would have eaten it with a spoon. If you search for this, be aware that while St. Felicien is somewhat available, the “Tentation” variety is quite rare, and is almost non-existant outside of France.

[jump ahead to my post on Cheese Part 3]

* Here’s the URL of a funny blog post about Epoisses written by an Englishman in Paris a few years ago: http://postcardsfromhome.blogspot.com/2007/02/there-it-was-in-my-mouth.html