Cheeseplates

Lavender Fennel Goat cheese rules the plate in Tucson

I have officially located the best cheese ever.  

While in Tucson for Christmas with my husband's family, we went for dinner to Vin Tabla. They have a terrific (if brief) cheese menu (available here) and we ordered 1 oz each of the following: 

• Brillat Savarin, which is a melt in your mouth soft cow's milk cheese;   
• Cabecou Armagnac, a soft goat's milk cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves that have been soaked in french brandy;  
  
• Purple Haze, a fluffy chevre with a dusting of lavender and fennel seed mixed in.
  

The Purple Haze blew me away!  I've never had a cheese that tasted like morning. It was just so pleasant and fresh and creamy, with none of the heaviness that people sometimes associate with cheese. I liked it so much, I looked to see if I could get it at the Cowgirl Creamery here in DC -- happily, I can.  Check out their cheese encyclopedia entry with full info.

two blue is too blue

 I had enjoyed the Gorgonzola Dolce at Proof so much that it made me wonder how it compared to other sharper blues.   When I saw it at the cheese counter while shopping for our holiday party, I thought: "why not have two blues and let people compare?"

Well, because not everyone likes blue cheese, as I was reminded this evening when a large portion of both were left on the plate.  The accompaniments (honey, dried cranberries, and walnuts) went over well and I did hear a few people comment "oh, honey with blue cheese, I never realized how nice that was." However, all in all, I'd have to say this was not a successful cheeseplate experiment. :(

Commonwealth Gastropub

Ok, so technically it was a ploughman's lunch platter that we ordered at Commonwealth gastro pub,(with meats, cheeses, and pickles) but it was tasty and meets my formal criteria of being more than one kind of cheese on a plate with accoutrement. Stilton and some kind of herbed cheddar, to be exact.  Frankly, I thought the herbed cheddar was kind of gross, but the stilton was good. It came with pickle, apple, cabbage, prosciutto, and dollops of mustard and date paste, which made for a solid lunch with  pint of lager.  I'd say it's more for the british-pub-philes and less the cheese lovers, but since they never advertised it as a 'cheese plate' per-se, I can't really complain.