One of our regular breakfasts is a simple grilled cheese sandwich, using a variety of sliced cheeses from the supermarket. Depending on what’s available on the shelves, and if any are on sale, we rotate between the Emborg, President and Arla brands.
Between them, a large variety of cheeses are on offer, ranging from Cheddar, Swiss, Gouda, Edam, Mozzarella, Emmental and Havarti. The Wife likes to mix-and-match when she makes our grilled cheese sandwiches, resulting in many different flavour combinations.
Once in a while, when we feel slightly more fancy, we head over to a cheese shop to discover new cheeses, especially those with hard-to-pronounce names. The one we went to this time was the aptly named The Cheese Shop, located in UE Square.
The shop was surprisingly large, given the expensive real estate at River Valley. The shelves and displays were generously spaced out, and coupled with a high ceiling and glass walls, the entire location felt very bright and airy.
Despite its very specific name, there were many other products being sold. Including wines, olives, spreads of all flavours, crackers, breadsticks, dried pasta and even frozen foods like sausages and ice cream. Besides foodstuff, there were also many cheese-related paraphernalia.
But the centrepiece was undoubtedly the long row of cheese fridges spanning almost the entire length of the shop. It was quite a sight to behold, and for cheese noobs like us, it was frankly a bit overwhelming.
The cheeses were grouped together by type, ranging from hard, semi-hard, semi-soft, soft, flavoured and blue, with their names, prices and country of origin prominently displayed.
We must have walked up and down the length of the fridge at least half-a-dozen times, trying to figure out what to get. The very friendly (and very patient) Nicholas was manning the counter, and we peppered him with countless questions as we agonised over our choice.
The extensive blue cheese section was particularly intriguing, because we don’t eat blue cheese but our good friend SL absolutely adores them. It turns out that she’s not alone, because Nicholas also happened to be a huge blue cheese fan.
“Blue cheese is like durian, you either love it or hate it.”
Nicholas, The Cheese Shop
And since we actually do like durian, we figured it was time to take the plunge and give it a shot.
We asked Nicholas what he liked and he pointed to a Roquefort, but cautioned that he wouldn’t recommend it to people who were new to blue cheese. It was on the extreme end of the pungent spectrum, and might be a bit too overwhelming.
We asked him to recommend the least scary choice and he suggested the Blu di Basque from France (S$70/kg), a blue cheese with training wheels. He shared that when he tried it for the first time, it was so mild that he couldn’t even tell that it was blue.
It sounded like the perfect fit for us, and we asked him to slice us the store policy minimum order of 150gm. This was the very first piece of blue cheese that we had ever bought, and we were looking forward to trying it out.
The next day, we unwrapped the cheese, cut out a one-third portion and had it with Meiji plain crackers. First, the good news. Even though it still had that typical wet sock blue cheese smell, it wasn’t as pungent-smelling as we had feared.
Texture-wise, it was soft and slightly waxy and after taking a generous bite, we could definitely tell that it was a blue cheese. The taste wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t something that we would want to buy again.
We managed to finish the remaining portion over the next few days by having it with generous amounts of honeycomb. Bearing in mind that this was as mild a blue cheese as it gets, it also meant that we’re not fans of blue cheese in general.
Sorry to disappoint you Nicholas; at least we tried.
In addition to the blue cheese, we had also bought some Reypanaer VSOP Gouda, an aged hard cheese from the Netherlands (S$66/kg).
The two-year maturation period greatly concentrated the flavours and produced crystals that were powerful umami bombs that exploded with every bite. If you like the saltiness and richness of Parmesan, you’ll probably love this Gouda.
To balance out the rich flavours, we chose a wedge of Vacherousse d’Argental, a soft double-cream from France (S$70/kg).
Now this was a cheese that we could eat everyday. It was soft, creamy, slightly sweet and so approachable, despite its fancy-schmancy name.
The three cheeses that we bought that day sat on totally different parts of the cheese spectrum. From the scary (to us, at least) blue cheese, to the complex aged Gouda and finally the super friendly double-cream.
Our favourite was definitely the Reypanaer VSOP Gouda, followed by the Vacherousse d’Argental and then the Blu di Basque.
It was interesting to sample all three at the same time, to compare and contrast tastes and textures. I guess that’s why cheese platters are so popular as starters or desserts.
We’re back to our regular grilled cheese sandwich routine, but I’m sure we’ll crave for new cheeses soon. But when we do, we’ll skip the blue cheese and stick with less scary options.
