JC98

I'll begin at the end, because of an odorous crisis that, hopefully, some of you could help me with. The morning before departing Paris, I'd bought a well-ripe Camembert, his best according to the guy in the fromagerie on the Mouffetard market. I didn't realized how smelly the cheese was until I noticed the French security personnels at the airport seemed to complain to each other that my luggage stank. When I told them it's fromage, they broke out in big smiles and nodded approvingly. See, it could be odor of dirty socks for all they know.

When I got home, I had to air my luggage and do laundry right away, even at 10:30 p.m. The malodorous cheese is now stinking up my whole fridge despite multiple layers of wrapping. How am I going to eat and enjoy this Camembert? Any suggestions? It's soft but not runny.

Sorry, this doesn't read like a trip report. I'll add more interesting details later.

crefloors

Ya just eat it...not big deal. Spread on bread, eat with fruit, heat in oven to warm..what are you saving it for? If you have a co-worker you don't care for, you could stash a small piece in the very back of his/her desk drawer. THAT could be fun.

Statia

crefloors

sandi_travelnut

I thought you could not take cheese that wasn't completely sealed, out of the country...

Nikki

And I thought you could only bring hard cheese into the country.

palette

I can understand the French letting it out of the country, but how did you get it past US customs if you declared you had food. They checked my luggage for mustard and olive oil.

Tiff

allisonm

Too funny! We bought 2 rounds of camembert at the airport cheese shop. They have been really smelling up my refrigerator for a month now. (Still good, though, per my husband. Too ripe for me!) Since we were working on one of them, I put the other in the garage fridge, where it reeks, but at least it doesn't make my whole kitchen stink when we open the door. I have been urging him to finish one soon. (I always assume that if you buy it at duty free, you can bring it home with not problems!)

JC98

Somehow no one gave me any troubles about the cheese. You think a good bottle of wine would cut the smell and make it more palatable?

Sorry, I'm diverging so much from the trip report format. Maybe I should start all over and begin a new thread to write my trip report.

sandi_travelnut

no need to restart JC98..the format police are off today.

Suzanne2

We rented a Studio apartment for a week. I bought some of that cheese. Never Again! It stank up the apartment so badly that we could not stand it. I threw it out and scrubbed the fridge. It still smelled. I went to the local market and could not find any baking soda and since I can't speak French no one could help me. I found some sort of a deodorant for the fridge, which helped. I lit candles and opened windows. What an experience. I will take a box of baking soda with me next time.

bardo1

Looking foward to the rest of your report.

BTW, I wouldn't say "dirty socks". I believe the correct description of Camembert is "Les pieds du Bon Dieu !"

bardo1

correction - a description of the SMELL of Camembert....

JC98

bardo1, ah yes, how crude of me to say it smells like dirty socks. The feet of the good God (according to Babelfish translation, or angels, I suppose) is a much more elegant description.

Ok, not sure how I'm going to begin my first trip report here. Yikes! I better type it out externally and check my grammar and spelling before posting it here. Please bear with me. It might take a while for me to get this going.

Nikki

If you type out your report in Word, which is what I do, turn off autocorrect first, and you should avoid the problem that occurs when you paste Word documents into Fodor's and all sorts of punctuation is replaced by question marks.

aggiemom

JC98 - Love the story about le fromage! I can just imagine how it smells....Can't wait to see the rest of your report.

crefloors

The cheese may stink but it's yummy and delicious so just eat it and stop worrying about it!!!! I'd love to take it off your hands..it wouldn't be stinkin' up my place for long! Get going on your trip report, inquiring minds want all the scoop.

JC98

Here's an update on the Camembert. To disperse the smell, my husband and I decided to eat it outdoors by a lake one evening. Even the ducks that'd customarily waddle by for handouts knew to keep a distance from us. And it took us almost a whole bottle of Cabernet just to conquer half a round. We were pleasantly surprised that the Camembert was quite delicious and the taste grew on us; it's possibly the most complex cheese I'd ever eaten. We better have another picnic soon before the rest of the fromage ripens more and turns into a weapon of mass desertion.

That picnic under a big sprawling pine tree looking out to the lake somehow conjured up memories of the Seine and our recent trip to Paris. Of course the old grand architecture of Paris wasn't present in this Southern CA landscape. It could have been the wine, for even the long shaft of sparkling gold on the water at sunset was evocative of the Eiffel Tower twinkling at night. And there was even rueful music played in the distance, sounding like the accordion often heard in the Metro in Paris but turned out a guy was practicing his concertina, a little handheld accordion-like instrument that Gepetto plays in Disney's Pinocchio. Hemingway is right about Paris is a moveable feast -- it took just some Camembert and wine to transport us back to the romantic quays along the Seine.

Anyway, I better get going on my real trip report. I have been busy with work, but hopefully I'll get some time this long weekend.

JC98

Sat.

AnthonyGA

Cheese shops normally specialize in cheese that is perfectly ripened--that is, in ideal condition to be eaten. Cheese doesn't stay that way for long (although many harder cheeses have a long shelf life). If you are buying cheese and you _don't_ intend to eat it promptly, make this clear to the cheese merchant, and he can select a cheese for you that isn't yet ripe but will become so by the time you plan to consume it. Usually you'll need to keep it in a cool dark place until you're ready to eat it.

This is very important with soft cheeses like Camembert. Harder cheeses ripen very slowly and so a few days or even longer aren't going to make much difference. Soft cheeses taste best when eaten at their peak.