My wife is hosting a baby shower, so she is off to the 'gourmet' cheese shop for fine cheese. I like gourmet cheese but if not for a special occasion I wouldnt consider going out of the way and paying such high prices to get it. Most supermarkets carry a good selection, so why make the special trip? Right or no?

So I ask, do you go to these shops? Would you be fine with what supermarkets carry? I must admit goat cheese and a hard cow cheese from the Netherlands my wife always gets is awesome but I would be fine without it. And if you are a fine cheese person, which are your favorites?

Nothing is better than a fresh Camembert if talking soft cheese - hard cheese I don't really care.

Worst cheese - funky smelling awful tasting Roquefort and all sheep cheese.

Camembert, must be AC camembert so only made with Cru milk (baby shower?) and never refrigerated. Buy it when it is soft (cover off and push thumb into base) and keep at room temperature for about a week. At which point you can eat it

I meant by fresh - freshly ready - a ubiquitous site in any French supermarket cheese section are finicky French foolks opening the wooden round
Camembert comes in and smelling it and pushing on it for JUST the right freshness - many a round left in the rack only to be bought perhaps by clueless foreigners.

P

Camembert is made with raw milk. Not a good idea for a baby shower. You need to check if the cheese is raw milk or pasteurised.

I am not a great lover of cheese but I do like both soft and hard goats cheeses. Leerdammer is one of my favourite Dutch cheeses.
A blue cheese is an option, but many people share PalQ's view of them.
Our supermarket has a great range of cheese so I usually buy cheese there, or at our local cheese farm, which has a fantastic range, all from their own milk, cow, goat, sheep and on occasion horse!

We love love love specialty cheeses, but find that in Zurich we can get what we want in the gourmet market in the basement of some of the big department stores... especially Jelmoli.

We do like a Brie for soft cheese, a medium Gruyere is fabulous, and hubby likes Appenzeler extra (too strong for my taste).

Worst cheese - funky smelling awful tasting Roquefort and all sheep cheese.>>

sounds as if "Stinking Bishop" would not exactly be your tasse de the, PalenQ.

http://www.thecheesesociety.co.uk/stinking-bishop

Love Epoisse and can get it in US occasionally in a gourmet cheese shop.

I love cheese and love trying new, interesting cheese when in Europe. Fortunately, I don't have PalenQ's issues with either Roquefort or sheep cheese.

We have two specialty cheese shops that are five minute drives from home. I like Bucherondin, a soft French goat cheese; and Cana de Oveja, a soft sheep cheese from Spain.

Well we like all sorts of cheeses (mostly) and no the supermarket doesn't have enough. Perhaps they have 30 or so - in NYC markets are small.

But we can walk 5 minutes one way to Whole Foods (200+ cheeses) or 10 minutes to Zabars (150+ cheeses) so we like to sample a bunch of different ones.

This is one of the reasons I just don;t get Rick Steeeeeves. What's the big deal of finding a cheese shop and talking to a cheese "expert"? Is this how I want to spend my vacation (versus a museum or castle or just sitting in a cafe with a drink)? I can find a ton of cheeses everyday here - and get free tastes.

nytraveler, I find cheese experts fun. You tell them what types of cheese you like and they introduce you to new cheeses you may not have tried. We LOVED our cheese expert in Aix en Provence. I think we'd go back to Aix just to go that cheese shop again.

Yes, but there are cheese experts everywhere there is a lot of cheese.

I recognize that there may be small towns that don't have any gourmet shops - but one doesn't have to go to France to get or sample cheese.

Ah, but if you really love cheese, as we do, going to cheese shops in different countries is really fun. Love food tours and the like, way more than museum stops.

Cheese is a primary food group. I decided after a fortnight in cape Cod that America doesn't "do" cheese (I have been excoriated for this view).

We get good, proper cheese in supermarkets here. You don't. Nonethless I but my important cheese from cheese shops and delis. What would life be without good cheese?