Hi BD,

>the only unique cheese in the US is the Monterey or also called Jack.

It's likely that Monterey Jack cheese is only the California version of a Mexican cheese brought from Spain that was introduced into Spain by the Romans.

>All of the other cheeses are replicas of other cheeses claimed to a different country.<

This is not so strange, since the indigenous peoples of the Americas didn't make cheese.

We have several outstanding goat cheeses made in New England. Coach is one but You can buy them in any cheese store. I shop Frommmagio and the Wine and cheese Cask for a great selection. Even Whole foods carries local cheeses

http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/cheese.htm

And here's Vermont. Most of these cheeses are in the cheese shops and at our farmers'markets.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...5AC0A966958260

Bravo Ira. We are a country of immigrants.

MY

Sheila and others have given you great advice - I'll just add a couple of wee pointers from my own experience.

As others have said, in fine dining restaurants anywhere, there will normally be a selection of home-made bread and/or biscuits with the cheese. In cheaper establishments, IME, you won't get bread in France and will only get it in Italy if it's still on the table from the start of the meal - although you can ask for it. The locals do generally just eat it on its own with a knife and fork.

Sometimes in Italy modest restaurants just list individual cheeses on the menu & you just order one.

I've had cheese with honey 2 ways in Italy. One way (which I've had in Sicily) is as the cheese course, ordered as cheese baked in the oven (al forno) with honey, and it comes as a semi-melted square on a plate with the honey already poured over it. The other way (which I've had in northern Tuscany as an antipasto) was a plate of pecorino with a small pot of honey on the side. Both delicious. And on a recent Italian holiday, during a week when we were self-catering, I bought a mixed pack of small jars of different local honeys and it came with advice on which cheese to serve each with !

"I've hardly ever encountered a cheese waiter in a place that still serves cheese properly (I don't think there is a specific word like sommelier) who wasn't really keen to tell you practically everything - including the lactating beast's Christian name and star sign - about the cheeses on offer."

flanner, did you ever eat at the late lamented Martin's in Edinburgh ? He would finish his introduction of the cheeses with a picture of the individual cow.

In cheaper establishments, IME, you won't get bread in France

I beg to differ. Bread is always served with cheese in France.

Caroline when I read flanner's post about the cheese waiter, Martin's in Edinburgh came immeadiately to mind!

Haven't been to Edinburgh since Martin's closed..I'm still in mourning.

Bread is NOT served(in France) with the cheese course which is served before dessert.

Jody, sad isn't it ? Martin Wishart does have a fab cheese trolley, though - but without the added Martin entertainment factor !

Italians rarely if ever follow cheese with a "dolci." They cheese instead of a last course sweet -- and in general, Italians eat sweets in between meals, not after meals. Fruit is a common way to end a meal -- and you can order plain fruit in a restaurant (you know, like an apple or slice of pineapple.)

In my experience, unless you are in a big city, the cheese you will be offered in Italy at the end of the meal will be the local cheese, the specialties of the region. In larger gourmet restaurants, the cheeses will be either listed on the menu, according to region, or they are sometimes shown to you from a tray or cart in a very fancy restaurant.

It is customary, if the course is a selection of several cheeses, to pick a variety of soft and hard but also sheep and milk cheeses. Most often ordinary bread is served with cheese in Italy.

As for parmagiano (and pecorino) I've more encountered served alone as an accompaniment to red wine apertivos or grilled as a primi. (Likewise, mozzerella, when served alone, is most often served before the main course, not after).

One thing to be aware of in Italy is that a great many local cheeses are not pasteurized. It's rare tourists become ill, but I have known it to happen, and some illnesses contracted from eating raw milk cheeses can be rather debilitating. I think if you are pregnant or have immune system issues, you might want to skip the cheese course in rural areas.

Bread is NOT served(in France) with the cheese course which is served before dessert.

Amazing !
Read the paragraph "Quantités à prévoir) here :http://www.fromagesdici.com/www/vin_et_fromages_fr.asp

caroline,

in Le Marche, the prized Fossa cheese is served with honey, usually chestnut honey, if I'm not mistaken.

I've dined in hundrds of restaurants and not had bread with the cheese before dessert which makes sense.
However if going to a café or wine bar, you will get bread if you are ordring chees as a snack.
In Dinner you start with
Entre,
Plat ,
Salde,
cheese,
dessert.
dessert

cighalecanta,

was that in Italy or France? Bread is commonly served with soft cheeses in Italy at the end of the meal. And it's necessary served if a hard cheese or mozzerella is served at the beginning of a meal.

I meant to write "It's not necessarily" served at with chunks of cheese or mozzerella, or with grilled cheeses that are served as primis.

In France, where it's served before dessert but My parents were born in Italy so I've followed serving bread with our cheese.

Well, I am French, I live in France and I have never seen cheese being served without bread in French restaurants or waiters removing the bread basket before dessert.

My experience has been similar to some others here -- ask questions, ask LOTS of questions, and if the place is any good you won't have to encourage them much to get them to go on at tremendous length, and you'll be happy. If they shrug and say "eh, it's cheese", it's not going to be good cheese.

Mind you, bad cheese is like bad sex: still pretty good, and definitely better than none at all. Both elicit from me a series of moans and low grunts, and neither is improved by the introduction of bread.

I promise you, we tried very hard. We did eventually find some good Vermont stuff that was like Cheddar, and the 4 year old had a taste (that was the problem, everything was tasteless).

On teh Sunday we went and had lunch at a deli/bakery which had been recommended- very ice- they were playing jazz on the balcony- and I saw they had "brie" and Emmental in the chiller, so I asked for some. The brie was pasturised and tasteless and I left it out in the heat for a week, and it was still tasteless, so eventually the birds got it.

The Emmental was funny tho' becuase that's what I asked for. It WAS Emmental- it still had the plastic wrap on, and my request had to be translated into "Swiss". The girl said she'd cut and package it whilst we were lunching, so we were home before we discovered she'd sliced it into thin thin slices.... I know, I know. But I was expecting a big chunk.

Flanner, apart from eating faster, do you know a way to stop parmesan drying out. My Italian frinds say to wrap it in tinfoil but it doesn't seem to me to do much good