When I was a kiddie, there seemed to be only about 5 different fresh cheeses commonly available in Brisbane supermarkets. Mostly cheddar. And then there was the rubbery cheese-like foil wrapped bricks of Kraft processed cheese, which seemed to have a shelf life of 5 years or more. Is it still available? I haven't gone looking...
Cheese varieties available grew over the 1970's, and seemed to explode in the 1980's. Now, every self respecting foodie area of Australia has its own small cheese factory, even in South East Queensland.
Here are two I have been to in the last 12 months, one at Mount Tambourine (not far from the Gold Coast) and the other at Maleny (not far from the Sunshine Coast). These cooler high areas are both well worth visiting for their scenery anyway, and they also have several competent wineries, although more often than not these are just outlets for wine made in the Stanthorpe region. There is also a nice goats cheese made by a Frenchman near Gympie that is available at the "farmer's markets" held at various locations around Brisbane.
Both of these small cheese factories made excellent cheeses and deserve success. In fact, the art of competent cheese making seems something that Queenslanders found a lot easier to master than making competent wine. (There are good Queensland wines now, though.)
The Witches Chase factory even runs 2 day cheese making classes, for those truly obsessed with cheese, I suppose. Their website is, however, one of the worst commercial ones I have ever seen.
Of course, true cheese connoisseurs will go on about how ridiculous it is that Australia will not allow cheese to be made from unpasteurised milk. (I have never tasted it so don't know what I might be missing.) They will also watch the cable TV show "Cheese Slices", which is truly European cheese pornography. (Well, I have seen an episode or two and have to admit to enjoying it.)
There is something deeply satisfying about melted cheese on toast when you are really hungry. I feel like some now.
Filthy European cheeses contain listeria and this causes stillbirths.
ReplyDeleteGeoff
Yeah, but on that Cheese Slices show I recall they spend a fair bit of time talking about how, if the cheese maker is really, really careful, they can avoid such bacteriological problems. (Whether that's correct or not, I don't know.) In fact, I think they also mentioned how the unpasteurised cheese is under threat from EU regulations.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Europeans and cheese, I still think the funniest insult of the French is "cheese eating surrender monkeys". Wikipedia tells me it comes from Willie the groundskeeper in The Simpsons!
Welcome back, too.
I've been reading.
ReplyDeleteOne of the children's highlights of the Great Ocean Road was the cheese place just inland from the 12 apostles - touristy but fun and lots of nice cheese to taste.
I appreciate your mix of blogging (while disagreeing with 90% of your opinions) I'm glad you are a relativist after all (I read the post on changes in sexual practice.)
I'm not sure that my being a relativist is a valid point to take from my post about sex!
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