Written: February 13th, 2010 | Author: Sylvia Zygalo | Category: Food | Tags: Cheese, Époisses, France, The Devil's Picnic | No Comments »
The first thing I’m going to do when I get to Paris this spring, is look for a poplar of unpasteurized Époisses. With the banned importation of its raw version in North America, there remain only a select few who carry the certification to produce it and sell it to cheese shops in Paris, the south of France and to Holland.
The ban is unjustified and motivated by a bureaucratic rivalry. The batch of Époisses that had caused the 1999 outbreak of listeria, was pasteurized and came from La fromagerie de l’Armançon, a factory that had already been condemned in a court in Dijon for producing counterfit Époisses under unsanitary conditions. It’s also been rumored that the Health Ministry had acted opportunistically in a play for power, in competing with the Veterinary Services for control of France’s Food Safety Association.
The most viable source of information on Époisses and its current standing in the marketplace, can be found in Taras Grescoe’s book, The Devil’s Picnic.
When I finally find this cheese, I’m not going to humiliate its complex characteristics of rich, salty meatiness and offending odor by throwing it into a quiche or a pie with apples, but plan to respect its strength by pairing it simply, with a baguette and a beer.
Written: November 8th, 2009 | Author: Sylvia Zygalo | Category: Design, Food | Tags: Architecture, Cheese, Design, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Factory, LEED, Sustainability | No Comments »
Artisan cheese & aesthetic design are not a predictable pairing, but somehow it feels appropriate for a company in practice of classic craftsmanship to blend its standards with that of sustainable architecture.
Located on twenty acres of agricultural land in Ontario, Canada, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Factory has won numerous awards for not only their creation of sheep & goat’s milk cheeses, but also in recognition of its Platinum LEED accreditation under the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program. They are Canada’s first & only certified LEED dairy factory.
Their cheese collection consists of fresh, washed-rind, soft-ripened, hard & limited edition cheeses. My palate is particularly drawn to their lavender chèvre, maple chèvre, their Isabella & Lemon Fetish, which harnesses a creamy & natural citric zest with a red fife flour on the rind.
A panoptic awareness for not only its product but the environment of which it is made, is a synthesis of principles that will, in my opinion, carry on through time & the changes within it.
Courtesy of Lapointe Architects
Courtesy of Wood Works Ontario
Written: April 29th, 2009 | Author: Sylvia Zygalo | Category: Food, Wine | Tags: Au Petit Chavignol, Cheese, Les Amis du Fromage, Wine | 5 Comments »
Vancouver, being the big, blue-eyed toddler that it still is has remained sadly sparse in its offering of cheese & wine bars. The Salt Tasting Room, which finally opened its doors a couple of years ago, has since had a gradual following with the opening of UVA Wine Bar last year. But just a few months ago I was suddenly teased by a furious buzz of words that left me full of feverish excitement: a 36-seat cheese & wine bar to open in the somewhat stark area of Vancouver at 845 East Hastings Street. &, as if I needed another reason for my heart to suddenly stop beating, I then hear that the restaurant is set to open by Alice and Allison Spurrell, the owners of les Amis du Fromage, alongside with Joe Chaput: the Duke of cheese & salami in the city. oh, Vancouver – just when I instinctively begin to glance outside of our relationship in yearning to fill the void that you constantly leave me with, here you are drawing me back in at the brink of our collapse. You’re beautiful & all, but bless you for finally realizing that I can’t eat your mountains.
A few have criticized Au Petit Chavignol’s location, in saying that the area is gritty & the restaurant displaced. Personally, I’m drawn to the more desolate & disconnected part of the city, where conformity to a district does not yet exist, & the neutrality of its neighborhood provides its visitors with the chance to focus on the food away from the distraction of trends. From layout to lighting, the restaurant is intimate & diffused of pretention. There were booths hugging tight corners of the room but I sat at the bar to subtly spy on the swarm of passionate activity.
Everything is made fresh & in-house on a daily basis. Characteristically, the food menu consists mainly of cheese but also offers home-made terrines, Iberico Ham & Prosciutto di Parma. The pleasant difference between this particular cheese & wine bar & that of any others in the city is that here they also offer soups, salads, fondue & other cheese-infused meals. I ordered a selection of cheeses from the cow (comté de montagne), goat (marcella) & sheep (pecorino brillo). The cheese, fixed in its own presence of flavor ranging from wood to aged chalky saltiness & red wine, bode well with the adequate & diverse selection of wine (by bottle or glass), & was on par with the Riesling; the obvious pet in the room. As per recommendation, I had two glasses of the German Leitz Riesling & found that it was the ideal balance between all the varying flavors on my plate.
I had plans that night already & sadly could not linger, but am already planning on re-visiting again soon. For now I remain comforted with the evidence of effort that my city is displaying & plan on holding steady for.. at least another month.
Written: January 5th, 2009 | Author: Sylvia Zygalo | Category: Food | Tags: Brie, Champfleury, Cheese, Les Amis du Fromage, Oka, St. Andrei | 4 Comments »
The first time that I recall falling in love with not just food, but the taste of food, was upon the discovery of cheese. Growing up for a few years in Poland, cheese was there but certainly not as abundant as sausages & sauerkraut. Looking back on it now, it was truly admirable as to how everything back then was so freshly made from the garden or the farm, or if living in the city like I was, acquired from a delicatessen who was always in marriage with suppliers so that our families could extend that growth into meals of love, nourishment & familial bribery.
My parents had then packed our life out from Poland & moved us over to a small island in Northern Germany, & it was there that I was exposed to a world filled with food on demand. Despite all the junk food chaos that had unexpectedly (& unfortunately) entered my life, the only real memory of taste that I recall is with a cheese that our neighbors brought over for us one day, wrapped in aluminum to contain it’s pungent smell. The cheese was hard & thin, breakable like flattened candy & sharp unlike anything I had tasted before. I fell in love. I could not retain myself from entering & re-entering that fridge to steal a few more bits off this old & smelly cheese. It was disgustingly delicious. To this day I am still unsure of what it was called, but the only relative cheese that I have had of similar flavor here is Limburger, which is also wrapped in aluminum in attempt to contain it’s strong odor. Distracted by mounds of ice cream & candy, I can’t rightfully say that I became a cheese connoisseur then, but it started a foundation for a love that continues to excite me still.
Thankfully, there are people here that are far more passionate about cheese than I am & use this passion to run shoppes & import cheeses from around the globe. One of my favorites in Vancouver is Les Amis du Fromage. Although a slight cry away from what Paris or Asturias in Spain has to offer, it’s still a lovely blessing from heaven. It’s my first stop down to Granville Island, where I eagerly continue hunting for strange & smelly cheeses to pair with whatever wine or beer I’ll be having with that night. Yea, I’m cheese geek but simple pleasures do me well.
Before I go on an essay of a rant on cheese & decide that I should open a store of my own, allow me to share with you some of my most recent & favorite discoveries of 2008:
St. Andrei
This is a high milk-fat, 75% triple crème cheese from France. The concept of less is more applies finely here, as it’s rich fattiness quite resembles the likes of butter. This cheese is amazingly delicious but can quickly turn on you & taste like soap if paired with most red wines.. & as well can make white wine taste metallic & sour. I am convinced that there is a wine out there suited for this cheese, but until I discover the perfect pairing, I suggest you stick to light beer & slices of pear.
Champfleury
This cheese came in 1st in the 9th annual Quebec fine cheese contest in 2007. I discovered it in 2008 while looking lost in the sea of delicious cheeses at Urban Fare. I tend to judge books by their covers & so I was immediately drawn to its bright poppy on its packaging & its copper rind showing subtly underneath. It is a washed rind, soft-ripened cheese that has the interior texture of a double crème Brie. You will die softly while eating it but I assure you that it will all be worthwhile. Goes perfectly with a Pinot Gris or a Pinot Noir.
Oka
Oka is a Canadian cheese named after the small village of Oka, Quebec where it originated in 1893. Recently it’s gotten a surprising amount of advertising in the form of a commercial & editorial print – something I don’t think it needs because a product this tasty only really requires a little word of mouth action. A bit smelly.. creamy & with a fruity or almost nutty taste to it. Delicious. Comes in a variety of forms but my favorite is ‘Providence’ as it is the richest & most flavorful.
I really could go on forever.. but if you’re still here reading this, you either really like cheese or you really like me. Hopefully both. Now go hit your local market & try some of the above.
