Despite the fact that I happen to work in a lovely cheese shop with beautiful artisan specimens from all over the US, I'm no cheese snob. To be perfectly honest, I'm not all that fond of cheese as a subgroup of food, unless it's very acidic, like a nice fresh chèvre, or in the service of enhancing a finished dish, like the "cheddar" weaving it's grated magic on my Taco Bell chalupa. So imagine me standing in this shop all day giving my sad, fake spiel to customer after customer about how "sublime" or "subtly nutty" all the cheeses are that I happen to personally dislike on a somewhat deep level...except for one! It's called "Frère Fumant" and it's a smoked raw "Basque style" sheepsmilk cheese from 3 Corner Field Farm in Shushan, NY. Meaty, hickory smoked, snappy and rich...it's as if you accidentally dropped your Lebanon bologna into a smoking hot hickory fire while camping one crisp autumn night and then ate it anyway, 'cept it's a cheese. Normally I find anything that combines smokiness with cream to be repugnant, but Frère Fumant puts its wagging finger in the face of my pickiness and tells it to &%$# off like a guest on Jerry Springer.
More Info 'bout 3 Corner Field Farm and Frère Fumant:
The Strong Buzz
Cheese By Hand
And, as an aside, here's enough good cheese reading to procrastinate an entire afternoon away:
New York Times Topics: Cheese
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