Friday Five a la Fromage...

[magnetic_pole]

1. What was the first type of cheese you ever ate? No actual memories here, but I'm sure it was American cheese. My parents were big on American cheese--the kind of that has "a glass of milk in every slice."

2. What was the type of cheese you ate most recently? Cheddar, in a roast beef sandwich earlier today, eaten on the train on the way home. It was so, so satisfying.

3. What is the most unusual cheese you ever ate? I'm not sure I've ever had a genuinely unusual cheese. I'm not very adventurous in this sense. Occasionally I need to eat stronger, more sophisticated cheeses when I'm served them at various work-related events, and it's hard.

As I type this, I'm wondering if questions about cheese are questions about class for US-based folks--what do you think? (I've definitely moved into the upper middle class as an adult, but I've still got middle/lower middle class tastes when it comes to food, and it shows when it comes to cheese, which I like mild and melty and in large quantities.) Non-US folks, I'm assuming that's not the case for you?

4. What is your favorite cheese? Monterrey Jack. I love spicy things.

5. What is your favorite dish made with cheese? Hm. Cheesy bread, a current magnetic_pole household favorite, which is whole wheat bread toasted with cheddar on top. Enchiladas with queso on top. (Although I'm not a purist, and I'll definitely eat the American version with melty cheese inside.) I don't eat quiche often, but the combination of egg and cheese can be wonderful.

What's your cheese story, flist?

On a related (gastronomical) note, I haven't forgotten my promise to post my pumpkin bread recipe here, and I'll finally have some time to type it up tomorrow. It's been a week and half these past few days. Hurrah for Fridays!

Comments

[out_there]

"Non-US folks, I'm assuming that's not the case for you?"

Hmmm. It's a little bit of class -- in that having cheese plates after a meal rather than, say, a bowl of ice cream is considered more classy and worldly, but it's also a sign of cultural background. Kids of European immigrants tend to eat different cheese, like feta, etc, because their parents do. Basic white-breas Australians probably eat what I do -- Bega sliced tasty or cheddar cheese, with brie or Camembert as a special occasion. Mind you I grew up eating the cheapest of sliced cheese (very milky, doesn't taste of much other than plastic) and those adorable mini babybels (hmm, not quite Edam, they're whiter and softer than that, but very tasty).

Mind you, some people love blue vein cheese and I can't stand the stuff, so YMMV.

For unusual cheese, I went to a cheese making dairy with my girlfriend (at the time) and we ended up buying quite a few odd cheeses and eating them by the coast. Lesson of the day: I do not like sweet cheeses. One of them had dried apricots in it -- so weird.

[jesse_the_k]

Dried apricots and chocolate are good.

Chocolate and cheese are good.

But dried apricots and cheese are totally wrong.

[out_there]

Even chocolate and cheese I think I would fond weird. Unless it's a cheesecake, in which case, yum.

[shaggydogstail]

Cheese probably has been a bit of a class thing in the UK too, although it's perhaps becoming less so. My working class family mostly ate Cheddar, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester (the last two are mild orange cheeses, popular here, don't know about other countries). Brie, Stilton, and Parmesan were rare treats (I don't think I'd even tasted Brie until I was 19). There's a better range of cheese in supermarkets these days so it's more accessible to have 'fancy' cheese, but the class element is still there.

I really want to go and eat some cheese now.

[therealsnape]

I guess there's a bit of a European thing here - quite frankly, and at the risk of sounding like the ghastly European I am, I was totally shocked at the cheese selection in the average US supermarket. I've been to a few big ones in Florida and in two other states, and … well, not my thing. Trader Joe is OK, and in NYC one can get good cheeses. I'll take this one up tonight, promise!

here to defend U.S. cheesiness.

[jesse_the_k]

....unless that average supermarket is in a cheese-oriented state, like Wisconsin, Vermont, or California.

[minervas_eule]

Sadly cheese-dishes, that are regional specialties in many parts of Europe (Käsespätzle, Käsefondue, Raclette and so on), don't agree with my gastro-intestinal system; I can eat it only in small quantities like two slices on bread. The one I to date loved best to eat on bread has been a present from TRS from her hometown market *wouldn't you have guessed!?!*; it was spiced with cumin, a spice I don't like in bread, but found out I love in cheese :-)

[onlysmallwings]

Enchiladas with queso on top

Oh dang, I completely forgot all of the delicious TexMex that ends up smothered in cheeses.

[delphi]

Cheese is definitely a class-based topic in Canada, both for similar social/dietary reasons as in the U.S., and also because dairy is much more expensive here due to supply management policies that limit domestic production and set minimum pricing. My own first cheese was probably the Kraft Parmesan in the can, as I don't think we could afford real cheese on a regular basis when I was a kid until we moved out of the north. Even then, we'd get one of those bricks of Cracker Barrel Medium Cheddar, and as soon as we returned home from the grocery store, my mom would mark up the package with a pen to show how much we could use per day.

That said, despite coming from the household where getting marble cheese was ooh-la-la, I somehow developed a taste for the fancy stuff. For years, I called my side-hustle income my "Brie Money" because it was just enough to pad out the grocery budget and allow some little indulgences.

[jack]

"I'm wondering if questions about cheese are questions about class for US-based folk"

Good point. I'm not sure in the UK. There's definitely a tendency that fancy meals are the ones with a cheese board, and middle class attitudes are leery of cheap/processed cheese and working class attitudes are leery of european cheeses. To me it doesn't feel as entrenched as other differences, but from my perspective I can't actually be sure if my impressions are true.

[lash_larue]

When I was a kid it was Kraft American cheese or Velveeta. My father referred to parmesan or any sort of blue as "foot cheese". I don't use American cheese now, but I still use Velveeta for burgers or grilled cheese. For just eating, I like Kerrygold cheddars or a good blue. Parmesan from a solid piece (none of that powder) for Italian dishes and feta with Greek and some Indian dishes.

I do think there is an economic side to cheese preference, the better cheese costs more.

L

[jesse_the_k]

Raclette .... fondue ... hmmmmm: meals where the cheese is the star!

I'm shocked I forgot paneer, because I do love it. One of my favorite restaurants makes pakora paneer, and it's heavenly. I can tolerate more paneer than most other soft cow's milk--I guess the yogurt bacteria grab all the lactose before they reach me?

[semielliptical]

Picking one favorite dish made with cheese would be impossible! But maybe macaroni and cheese. Though I probably east toast and cheese more often than any other, and like you, I enjoy it with cheddar.

I would guess that the first cheese I ate was either Velveeta or "parmesan", aka the sprinkly cheese in the round green can. And those were pretty much the only cheeses I ate for most of my childhood.

[ayebydan]

This seems such a random f5

[kelly_chambliss]

Cheese is my number-one top favorite food. And definitely, cheese (like everything else, really) has class implications. I once had a roommate who refused to allow me to make a tasty party snack that contained Velveeta, even though I assured her that it would totally melted and unrecognizable as its class-marked self. (Her objections weren't based on health or ingredients, but on the product itself.) And while it's true that CheezWhiz tastes pretty bad, I think most people who sneer at it do so for class-based reasons. But I'm sort of an equal-opportunity cheese lover. If I like the taste, I'll eat it.

[splix]

I'd eat my own head if it had cheese on it, basically. I like all strengths and flavors. I've rarely met a cheese I haven't liked, although my dad used to eat Limburger which damn near knocked me out. I wonder if I'd appreciate it more now as my palate has broadened considerably. That said, I still like American cheese too, though I haven't eaten it in ages.

[secretsolitaire]

Cheesy bread, mmmmmm. I like to melt cheddar cheese onto crackers too. Quiche, yes. NOM.

*wanders off, hungry*

[liseuse]

Cheese is definitely class-inflected in the UK (though, I'd argue that's because most things are!) but in strange ways. I grew up eating a lot of cheese - usually cheddar, some stilton, wensleydale, etc. And mostly this was because my maternal grandparents were Irish and came from dairy country so cheese was a big thing in my mother's life (when they could afford it) and apparently my nana's face when she arrived in England in 1946 and discovered a) cheese rationing and b) the atrocious quality of the cheese available, was A Thing To Behold.

I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. Any and every cheese. Except the cheese which has fruit in it. I'll eat cheese with fruit, but I will not eat fruit in cheese. That's an abomination.

Unusual cheeses? Hmmm. probably Norwegian brown cheese. That was nice but it's very odd looking.

My favourite cheese dish is macaroni cheese. I love it, and I eat it more than I probably should. And I refuse to make fancy macaroni cheese. I don't want it to have truffle oil in, or be made with exciting cheeses. I want the comforting heft of a bowl of carbohydrates covered and smothered in a Red Leicester cheese sauce, with extra cheese grated on top.