[Food] Favorite cheese?

[Turtle]

After listening to a great broadcast about alpine cheese on NPR (publish radio here), I wanted to try some.

In fact, I've been a fan of cheese for a while now, but so far haven't gotten into the whole cheese wheels, bread, and wine thing.  Until now.  I picked up some imported cheese at trader joes.  I forget what kind, but it's an alpine cheese, very strong this one.  But goes great with bread and wine from what I've read.

To replace the wine, I instead went with some Virgil's Root Beer.  It's a really, really good micro brewed root beer, best I've tasted and miles ahead of bulk brands.  Its flavor, I'd have to say, is like a fine wine of the root beer varieties, sweet but also subtle and pleasing tastes mixed in after the initial burst of sweetness.  So it works very well with cheese despite being a sweet soda.

So I've been snacking on a slice of this cheese, some toasted bread, and great root beer and it's absolutely delicious.

I'm wondering if anyone else out there has a fondness for cheese and what types?

I enjoy both strong and subtle cheeses.  For instance I love swiss and asiago, but also enjoy brie.  I'm not a fan of blue cheese of any kind though, only for the flavor, I don't mind stinky cheeses so long as they taste good.

[CeeKay]

I love pepperjack.  Grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, any kind of non-fish cold cut sandwich (except Pastrami and Corned Beef).  I cut it up in chunks and stir it in with my chili.

[Daehawk]

We dont have any fancy cheese shops around these parts so my favorite is Sargento's Sharp Cheddar . Goes great in plain toasted bread. Toast one side then flip it over, stick a slice of cheese on, and toast till the cheese bubbles.

As for Virgils root beer I LOVE that stuff. The best ones I had were in old style bottles with the ceramic/rubber cap that was connected to the bottle by wire and you could reseal it. Years ago Virgil's had a root beer brewing kit you could order from them and use those bottles you'd collected to brew it in. I saw online a couple review sites that panned Virgils root beer but I love it. Screw them

[ROTC1983]

I am boring...I like swiss cheese a lot.

[unbreakable]

I really like a lot of cheeses.  Really sharp cheddar is nice, buffala mozzarella is great (so long as there is a local place which makes it- you want it fresh).  Blu cheese is also great.

Lately I've been eating a lot of cheese with crackers.  I've also tried out some brie, and while I really like it... I can't enjoy really bad smelling cheese.  About two months ago I got a really great tasting soft Italian cheese... but when I got it home, it stunk my whole apartment up!  The place smelled like old gym socks for about a week.  I need to find a place which sells a low-fat brie, I think they tend to be less smelly.

[CeeKay]

The place smelled like old gym socks for about a week.

so now it's back to the regular dead raccoon smell?    There's a Italian pseudo fast food place at work that uses slices of real Buffalo Mozzarella.  That stuff is great!

[gellar]

Pretty much any type of goat cheese.  Great with salad.

gellar

[RobbieD]

I hated cheese as a kid. I could eat it if it was on something already, like a burger, but cheese by itself icked me out. My wife has gotten me eating all kinds of cheese these days and I have to say I'm really like most kinds. I still shy away from blue cheese but have found Cotswald and Monterey Jack to be quite tasty.

[Lee]

Love cheese, although the good stuff is hard to get around here. I love English sharp cheddars especially. I will occasionally order some off of iGourmet.com. There is one they have that has a mold going through it that is amazing. Localing I can get a Canadian cheese, Black Diamond Cheddar which is great, but not cheap either.

Sage Derby is another favorite.

Oh and you can never go wrong with some real Parmigiano-Reggiano, salami and bread.

Unfortunately you can't get real good cheese in the US do to strict laws on pasteurization, so we miss out on a lot.

[CrayolaSmoker]

Buffalo mozzarella thrown into a warm dish with some feshly baked cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil and crushed black pepper.

It's 98.7% bliss.

[WinoMcCougarstein]

I dont think there is a cheese that I dont like.  I love them all!!

[TheMissingLink]

I was just at the Tillamook cheese factory and I sampled a few

I'm not a big fan of cheese, but I was very surprised with how good this was:

[Tebunker]

We enjoy all cheeses in our house, but I would recommend going to a more uppy grocer in your town, maybe a Harris Teeter or Fresh Market and see if they have any samples.

I can recommend,

almost any and all Goat Cheeses
Feta
Gorganzola, sprinkled on beef tenderloin, so freaking tasty
Havarti
Cabot's Extra Sharp White Cheddar <- really sharp cheddar, in a package with plaid on it, definitely good with real Bear.
Meunster is excellent for "samaches"
Smoked Gouda with fruit and crackers

I could literally go on forever, definitely recommend the uppy grocery store stake out, check out wine shops too, great cheeses are out there for your tastebuds to experience.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Brie
Smoked Gouda
Unpastuerized goat cheese
Kraft American Singles 

[CrayolaSmoker]

Kraft American Singles 

At least you didn't say Velveeta?

[CeeKay]

Kraft American Singles 

At least you didn't say Velveeta?

what's wrong with Velveeta?  They're Mac and Cheese is far superior to the Orange Dust Cloud O' Doom Kraft Mac and Cheese.

[wonderpug]

I love just about any cheese, but if I had to pick some top favorites:

Brie.  I love brie.  Also pretty much any other similar soft cheese.  There's this brie/gorgonzola sort of blend that I had the other day that was just fantastic.
Goat cheese is wonderful in just about any form.  There's this tapas place in Boston that does this delicious baked goat cheese dish, mmm...
Swiss Lorraine is excellent and a favorite of mine for sandwiches.
Pepperjack is my favorite for burgers.

You really can't go wrong, though.  I'm not sure if I've ever met a cheese I didn't like.

By the way there's this restaurant chain in California called Max's Opera Cafe.  They've got this "ultimate grilled cheese" sandwich that has brie, havarti, and muenster melting everywhere, as well as bacon and tomato.  It must be about 2000 calories, but oh man is it delicious.

[unbreakable]

Wow, how did I miss muenster?  That's a great cheese.

Try making quesadillas with muenster.  When the cheese has been melted, it tastes even more fantastic.

[CrayolaSmoker]

Kraft American Singles 

At least you didn't say Velveeta?

what's wrong with Velveeta?  They're Mac and Cheese is far superior to the Orange Dust Cloud O' Doom Kraft Mac and Cheese.

This coming from the guy that likes to have Alex Pat his Bill...

[ATB]

OMG!  How cruel this thread is.

In an attempt to eat healthier and cut down on my cholesterlol, I've given up cheese for the month of September.

Oh, I am fortune's fool!!!!!!! 

[disarm]

i'm a fan of just about any kind of cheese, but i'll point out one i really like that not everyone knows...

Halloumi - The Cheese That Grills

it's a cheese made mostly from goat and sheep's milk that has the interesting property of not melting on the grill or in a skillet.  you can brown Halloumi on the grill while you cook other foods and it won't melt.  i like cutting up a block of Halloumi and including it on shish-kebobs on the grill...goes great with grilled steak, chicken, peppers, onions, or just about anything else.  the texture is a little different (kind of rubbery), but it tastes great

[Goldchamp]

pepper jack, and colby. usually whatever is on sale.

[mori]

For a sandwich I like Havarti.

Hamburgers I like Pepper Jack, Swiss, or American .

Just a cheese and cracker it would have to be Extra Sharp Chedder (sharper the better).

[Turtle]

ATB, it's all about portions man.  You just have to control how much you eat.  I've actually lost weight and gained muscle by exercising and controlling portions, all the while still eating meals out like burgers (no fries).  And yes, I do have cheese in my meals.

Argh, now my own topic is making me want to go out and spend even more for a nice slice of Brie.  Or visit my local Vie De France restaurant for onion soup with their swiss/asiago cheese covering it, and either a croque monsiuer or their french cheese steak (basically a cheese steak make with brie on a baguette, it's American, but tastes great nonetheless).

Say, do you guys have particular brands or favorite sub-types?  I know there's all sorts of sub-types of cheese, along with particular brands with their own flavors.  What cheese based dishes or items to eat with it do you like?  I found my trader joes sesme crackers overpowering the taste of my cheese, and that's saying something considering the cheese I got is really strong, so I switched to some english muffins that were on hand.  I plan to buy some good bread next time I go out.

That cheese that can be grilled sounds really good, gotta try that.

[unbreakable]

The crackers are really important, too.  I hate getting a cracker that overpowers the taste/texture of the cheese.

Baguettes are surprisingly good for cheese eating, since they have a nice neutral flavor.  A lot of the regular boxed crackers at the store kind of stink for eating good cheese, since they are either too strong tasting or don't have (IMO) a good texture for cheese eating.  Saltines are ok, if there's really nothing else, but they bring a lot of blandness into the mix.

[ATB]

ATB, it's all about portions man.  You just have to control how much you eat. 

For the common man yes. For ATB whose willpower ebbs and flows like the tide, it's all or nothing.

I'm either WAY out of shape or WAY in shape. There's no in between...And 5 days in, Turtle, no going back on the Cheese ban.

[CeeKay]

this thread is inspiring me to check out the large cheese selection at the local Sunflower.....

[JuniorDan]

Lately, cheese has been making me poop. alot  I hate being over 30

[CeeKay]

Lately, cheese has been making me poop. alot  I hate being over 30

but cheese is the shiznit, no?

[Kratz]

Cheese generally blocks things up... so that's weird.

I really love Tillamook Sharp Cheddar.  And melty swiss on a ham sammich is great...  I pretty much like most cheese.

Velveeta and American are not cheese.  They sully the name of cheese.

[GuidoTKP]

I just picked up a Goat Gouda from Whole Foods that is pretty outstanding.  I love making scrambled eggs with the stuff.

[WarPig]

Hmmm, type and subtypes of cheese.  I like smoked gouda over gouda, creamed Havarti over Havarti (almost melts in your mouth, great in a roast beef panini), mild cheddar over sharp, and not a big Swiss fan.  I like Brie and Muenster, most Mozzarella, Feta, and Asiago.  I, too, am not a fan of bleu cheese.  There are other cheeses that I've tasted, but am on the fence about.  Sage Derby is good, unless I'm not in the mood for it.  I've also tried an Irish dill cheese that was heavenly the first time I had it...and when I had it again, I almost couldn't stand it.  I think it was the other cheeses I had been tasting throwing it off.  Love the pepperjack, had one made with jalapenoes, it was awesome.