An Adventure of the Gastronomical Kind

"Would you like to add extra cheese on your burger, Ma'am?"

I've always brushed off an invitation for cheese. I remember its awful, salty taste that didn't really help with my order of burgers or tacos back in the days when I was still a kid - it just added more salt, that's all. Extra cheese on my pizza order? No thank you. Other people seem to enjoy huge amounts of it on their pizza, but not me. I never liked it, didn't want to have anything to do with it, and it gives me that sickening, indigestion problem that I suspect comes with the fat content. Sugars I can handle.. but fat? The same goes for my orders with beef, fried rice, stir fried beef with flat rice noodles - it never ends up comfortably in my stomach without causing an uncomfortable feeling and a whole-day-long digestive problem.

At least, not until recently.

Through a fortunate set of circumstances, my partner and I met a Frenchman during our hiking trip to Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, which brought about this post. He was doing a round the world trip and decided to pass by to Hong Kong recently, where we extended our hospitality to cook dinner for each other, highlighting each of our cultural background. Our friend decided to make a typical french dinner which he would normally prepare for himself - It consisted of a 4 course meal: a simple tomato vinaigrette salad, panfried salmon with lemon sauce with a white wine pairing, a cheese course together with red wine pairing, and a splendid lemon meringue pie that was definitely something that's not to be missed.

Out of all that, what had the strongest impression was the cheese course. That night our friend decided to initiate us with three cheeses as a primer: a cream cheese base, encrusted with peppercorns (Rambol), cows milk base called Saint Albray, and ewe based Roquefort Societe. To pair with that, we bought some french baguette from one of the better local bakeries in town, and red wine to complement.

I've passed by one of the more upscale supermarkets in Hong Kong, with its full line of cheese and ham selections, in full bewilderment, and yet also with faint curiosity, and even sometimes, mild amusement. As any upscale supermarket cheese section goes, sometimes anyone would wonder why they would dedicate a section just for it, with cheeses of all shapes and sizes, big or small, crusted, semi crusted, moldy, holey, whatever. And I finally found out the reason why that night.

I wasn't greeted with the extreme saltiness that I've so often associated with cheeses. Those are the days long past. What I was initiated with, was an assortment of different subtle tastes and textures - aromatic, subtle, pungent, strong, soft, grainy, velvetly. By far my favorite in terms of character was the Roquefort - it is a blue cheese that has a semi hard texture, its flavor profile starting off with sweet, then pungent, followed by salty and finally having a deep smoky and salty aftertaste - It's almost like the earthiness taste of wild mushroom and truffles, together with the robust savoriness of an excellent quality steak. To be honest, I think if I had to live off something for the rest of my life, Roquefort would be a good choice. One would hardly miss eating beef when they have that in their repertoire of dishes!

Our second cheese selection, Rambol, was interesting, to say the least. It is cream cheese based, but as it has been seasoned and encrusted with black peppercorns, gives of the strong, spicy and slightly nutty flavor of the peppercorns to counter the creamy, smooth texture of the basic cream cheese base. As for the Saint Albray, it is classified as soft cheese, with its characteristic flavor profile distinctive from the first two: lightly springy but still spreadable texture, with a delicate, clean flavor of rich, quality milk and some slight aftertaste of butteriness. This was actually my overall favorite of the 3 - you can probably have tons of the Saint Albray without getting sick of it, with its mild and clean taste, whereas the Rambol and Roquefort would be something you should only take in small quantities - something to have and appreciate slowly, like eating durian (ok maybe not everyone likes this) or having a rich, thick cup of cocoa or shot of espresso.

So after a night to remember, with good home cooked food, wine (unfortunately I cannot tell if this was any good, I am a bit of a blind bat with alcohol - but our French friend did enjoy it), a nice introduction to French cheeses and a sweet and tangy lemon meringue pie, out sprung our interest and curiosity of a different kind. This delectable dairy milk by-product is no longer synonymous to saltiness - With a section full of cheese to choose from, the next trip to the supermarket is likely going to be as adventurous as the first time with our beloved Frenchman!

Bon Appetit!