My Paris - Cheese

I am continuing with yet another part of my Paris experience, with which I am also taking you to a bithday celebration of a French friend of mine. She, among other things, was the reason for my visit to France. A bit more about the French cheese-obsession coming soon!

We all know a phrase that French love their cheese. But the reasons "why" they do - I never fully understood.

I got especially amused by their serious anxiety when they come on holidays and on the menu of the Croatian hotel restaurant, they find 4-5 types of cheese like Gauda, ​​Emmentaler and gorgonzola cheese (showing our "exotic" nature).

Croats (apart from very few exceptions) have almost no habit of cheese tasting or eating it after the main meal as a dessert. For most Croats cheese is used to fill the sandwich with something other than sausage.. and to create that fine elastic part of the pizza.

Some put it in salads, cookies, or sprinkle it over the Bolognese sauce, but this is the pinnacle of cheese to use in everyday Croatian cuisine .. which explains the terrible poor range of delicious cheeses in our supermarkets.

Arriving the first larger French supermarket, I realized how it works over there. You know the Croatian section with chocolates and biscuits? Well, it is about the same size as a French department with gourmet cheeses.  And I honestly did not even notice a Gauda .. I am sure that it was out there somewhere, but probably deliberately hidden, because the goal is clearly to buy something else. Of all these choices of cheeses, it is good to act as if you were testing perfumes-do not try more than 3-4 types. I stayed at 4 types.

1. Camembert

Probably the most popular French cheese, which can be found in almost everyone's refrigerator. Affordable price, taking into account that it is not consumed in quantities which we pile it in sandwiches. Camembert is a soft cow's milk cheese that has a white outer rind (noble rot), and inside it is creamy and "molten", but not as squeeky under the teeth, as when you melt a classic cheese. This was my favorite, and I am especially happy when I noticed that it can be found in Konzum, and that it is also produced by a Croatian dairy company- Vindija.  

2. Selles-sur-Cher

Somewhat dry, goat cheese and a lot moldy with far more pronounced flavor, which got I served by my friend as a - cheese from her central region. The appearance of mold can be frightening because in this case it is actually blue-green-gray color, but the mold does not have any obnoxious, non-digestible taste, like most of us would think. In fact, this cheese is very tasty, partialy creamy, but not nearly as Camembert.

3. Crottin de chavignol






Probably the most famous dry goat cheese sold in small, cilinder shape (tall and narrow). This tiny cheese price exceeds the previous two, taking into account how much you get. But he was of such quality and taste that is more made for tasting than for something you would eat till you are full. The cheese I brought home .. and although we often get it and cut off a slice or two, it still has a more than half left. Its flavor really gives the impression of  the goat milk, it is crumby, and the only one without a mold crust, but its own dry crust.

4. Fromage à raclette

At my home we have our own raclette set and we often put it to use when we have guests coming over. But the difference between our and the French raclette is that we put our before mentioned Gaudi and Emmentaler, while the French use their special raclette cheese (now, wasnt that obvious?). It is something like a smoked cheese with a brownish-orange edible rind, which is already cut to size for raclette trays. And call me ignorant, but I personally did not find it any better than our usual melted cheese. I also learned they use a special fondue cheese to make fondue But I will continue, as ignorant as it may be, using regular cheese of my choice. And while we mention the raclette, why not show what we got served along with it. So, with raclette it is typical to serve boiled potatoes, meat snacks and a glass of wine . But of course, I also saw a new technique for baking the eggs, pouring in into the tray instead of cheese.

The only difference in my home is that, along with the cheese, on top of raclette we often put the mushrooms, zucchini, various vegetables to grill. And if we're just hungry, we grill some meat as well.
With this I will finish the second part of my gastronomic travel through France. In the next section-Eating out: restaurants and pastry shops.