Cheese cheese cheeeeeeeeeeese!

Flashback: Tillamook sample bar - repeat offender

I have a history with cheese. I can't remember the first time I tasted cheese and I also can't remember ever not loving the stuff. Yes, I'm the girl who went on the factory tour at the Tillamook cheese production facility in Oregon twice because the sample bar at the end was so delicious (and actively calculated ways to spear 3-4 cubes of cheese with every toothpick on said cheese buffet). That's me, flashing the "peace" sign or the "two successful trips to the cheese bar" sign depending on your knowledge of the situation.

Flash forward one and a half years: Madrid, Spain. Basically smack dab in the middle of a cheese lover's paradise. Did the abundance of new and different types of cheese play a roll in my decision to move to Spain? I'm not saying it was the decision maker - but knowing a welcome mat of cheese was waiting for me made the transition a tad easier. And sure enough, when I arrived in Spain, the fridge was fully stocked with sumptuous cheeses.

12 cheeses. My version of the 12 apostles.

And yes, it's true, there are twelve different kinds of cheese in the refrigerator right now. Perhaps an intervention is necessary. It doesn't help that our cheese guy at the market, Angel, always convinces us to get one or two more cheeses than we otherwise would have purchased. He's just so nice and knowledgeable and knows just how to play to our cheese cravings. Add to that the fact that he is incredibly patient with me as I practice my rudimentary Spanish. It's basically a recipe for disaster or gluttony or a saturated fat extravaganza. Where else does the reward for practicing Spanish come so readily and so deliciously?

Anyway, back to cheese. Here's a quick rundown of the dirty dozen (a.k.a. the cheese in the fridge). From top left, we have puro de cabra, a light, slightly tangy goat cheese.

Picon Asturiano

To its right is Picon Asturiano,
a delicious blue-veined cheese that pairs nicely (read: yuuuuummmmmyyy) with pears, salads, etc. Next is Havarti (purchased with some bread for an afternoon of people watching in the heart of the city). To its right is a four-cheese blend (because you never know when your recipe will call for good ole who-the-heck-cares-what-kind-of-cheese cheese). Just below the cheese blend is a ripe goat cheese roll crusted with herbs (chevvvvvvvre). It's surprisingly a bit more difficult to find creamy goat cheeses that aren't cured. Anyway, we found one so life can go on.

Gouda with cumin

Below the chevre is a bit of gouda with cumin (yellow with flecks of cumin in it). This one will blow your socks off. The cumin is amazing. To the left of gouda heaven is a good, solid semicurado (semi-cured cheese). Probably the most common cheese I've seen in stores here, the semicurado is like the cheddar of Madrid (disclaimer: It is to me, probably shouldn't speak for madrilenos).

Queso de cabra Ciudad Real

Next to the semicurado is my favorite everyday cheese (so far): queso de cabra de Ciudad Real. It's another goat cheese from a city about 200 kilometers just south of Madrid called Ciudad Real (Royal City). It too is delicious and tangy and holds up nicely on the little pieces of toast they sell here. It gets a big thumbs up on the nom-nom scale (nom-nom-nom is the sound you make when trying to talk with a mouthful of cheese!) Pop quiz: What do you eat when nobody feels like cooking and your frigorifico is full of cheese? Why cheese and mini toasts with olive oil, of course. Still searching for that Mediterranean diet...

Next up (to the left) is good ole brie. It's cheap here. We're talking 1 Euro for a big thick wedge cheap. Pay a bit more and you can get some pretty sumptuous stuff for not that much dinero. Northwest of brie is the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Pasta anyone? Rounding out the Tour de Queso are our friends mozzarella and another semicurado (leftover from our trip to Brussels). Whooooeee.

All this thinking about cheese is making me hungry so I'll sign off with one more quick trivia bit: when taking photos in Spain, the people here say "patatas" instead of "cheese." Interesting, right? I can't say I know why other than that "cheese" is an English word and "queso" doesn't pull your lips into that lovely smile quite like saying "cheese" does.