On the quest for cheese, we stumbled upon a new source relatively near our home in rural California. Vinhus, a funky little European specialty food shop in the Danish-themed town of Solvang, is right on the main drag of town, with a big windmill flapping outside, danish flags flying proudly, and men in lederhosen (or whatever you call danish clothing) wandering randomly hither and thither.
The sign outside the store said "cheese," so naturally we had to investigate.
As we excitedly walked through the entrance, our noses were punched in their little notril-filled faces by the disturbing odor of decay and fish buckets. I figured it was the tourists - a lot of tired, smelly travelers walking in off the hot street from their day spent wandering the town. Oh, but it wasn't the tourists...it wasn't the tourists at all.
Shining like a beacon in the fog of cheese-less afternoons was an amazing assortment of pre-cut cheeses in the refrigerated case by the wall. We had a great time looking through all the weird cheeses we'd never heard of before. They had a fine collection of imported European cheeses, accompanied lovingly by that horrific, ammonia-fish-death smell.
This happy discovery was quickly dissolving into a sad, sad regret.
I found a small box of Camembert that was recommended in the Cheese Primer - instinctively I put the cheese to my nose to smell the deliciousness. Instead of creamy, mushroomy goodness I got a nose-full of putrid, dead things. GROSS! It was awful.
We moved on.
Other alluring cheeses sat there with oily labels, dried out, and forgotten - they looked "dead," that is, the live organisms that make cheese so wonderful had long ago shuffled off their mortal coils.
I think the problem here is the folks at Vinhus need to cut back on their inventory. Rather than stocking and maintaining fourteen brands of Stilton, seven separate types of Brie, hundreds of pounds of parmesan and a myriad others, they should stick to the favorites and biggest sellers until they can properly care for more. The smell alone is probably driving customers away.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, though - they had some fantastic stuff in the cheese case, and a great variety of unique stuff for the home, plus lots of interesting candy, a great wine collection, and all kinds of other crazy things. We'll give them a month or two to shape up before we visit again.
The bottom line is this: when you're out shopping, don't be afraid to smell the cheeses before you buy them. All cheeses have a distinct aroma, but if a cheese smells like ammonia or rotting fish chances are it is past its prime.
The bottom line is this: when you're out shopping, don't be afraid to smell the cheeses before you buy them. All cheeses have a distinct aroma, but if a cheese smells like ammonia or rotting fish chances are it is past its prime.
No comments:
Post a Comment