My Cheese Experience

So I love cheese.  I don’t just like cheese, I absolutely LOVE cheese.  If anyone asks what my favorite food is, I reply without hesitation “I love cheese”.  When I was a little girl, my mom used to tell me “You eat so much cheese, you’re going to turn into a mouse when you grow up!”.  40-something years later and I haven’t turned into a mouse yet, but I still LOVE cheese.If I’m not mistaken, my mom used to take me to the Village Cheese House in Palo Alto to buy cheese for the traditional Cheese Fondue that my dad used to make before it was the “in” thing to do!  I remember the smell of the cheese when we went into the shop…there’s a distinct smell to cheese shops and I always went with my mom whenever I could.

When I came down to San Diego to attend college at UCSD, I looked for a cheese shop in San Diego and couldn’t find one.  In my naivete, I didn’t understand that cheese shops weren’t a normal and natural shop to go to.  I mean who wouldn’t want a cheese shop?!  They just weren’t to be found and it would be a very long 25 years before I discovered a cheese shop again.  During those 25 years, the grocery stores slowly started carrying more variety of cheeses as well as stores like Trader Joe’s, but it just wasn’t the same.

Then I found Venissimo Cheese.  I don’t know how I found or when I found Venissimo cheese, but I know it was on one of my many surfing episodes….this one around cheese.  I was excited to find the shop and even more excited to find one in Del Mar…not too far away from Escondido.  My excitement peaked when I clicked on Events & Classes and scrolled down to the bottom to find my dream class….Creating a Cheese Course Experience.  I stared in disbelief….

“Experience a personal one-one-one, hands-on 1.5-hour adventure with Cheese Wiz Gina where you will learn how to cut & present cheeses for the perfect cheese course & how to make a gorgeous “cheese cake.”  From selecting to slicing, you’ll create two delicious cheese treats to take home & enjoy with friends.”

It was Chrismastime, so what did I do?  I bought My Cheese Experience!!  Yesterday at 1pm, I drove over to the Flower Hill Mall for my Experience.  I walked into the store and it was like going back 30-35 years and walking into the Village Cheese House all over again.  It smelled identical!

The owner Gina was wonderful and amazing.  I spent an hour and a half sampling cheeses (drooling the whole time) and watching her put together a little “crate” of four different cheeses (pantaleo, red leicester, cana de oveja and point reyes blue), as well as the promised “cheese cake” (coulommier cut in half, drizzled with lavender honey and these oiled almonds in the middle, topped with an edible flower and cut up dried figs and apricots). She also sent me home with four other cheeses that I loved ( hook’s 10-year cheddar, bucaneve fresco, speziato al tartufo and midnight moon) to create my own special cheese experience.

On top of all that, I think I tried at least 10 other cheese, if not more!  One of the many things that I love about Venissimo is the printout that you get with each purchase.  The printout contains the name, how to pronounce it, a brief description, where it comes from, what type of milk is used, whether it’s pasteurized or raw and finally wine suggestions….all in this neat little printout!  You can go to any of their three shops and try cheeses to your heart’s content and then choose a few for your party.

I can’t thank Gina enough for My Cheese Experience….THANK YOU GINA!

One thought on “My Cheese Experience

  1. Hi Julie:

    I enjoyed reading your blog as part of my CSIT70 Project 3 assignment. I really like the WordPress blogging platform. Your customized template is also nice, but my favorite parts of your blog were the photo albums for the 50year wedding anniversaries in your family and the family page introductions.

    Best wishes, Marlene Forney

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