Travel Cheese

I was talking to Murray's cave master, Michael Anderson about the hoopla about the breast milk cheese that keep foodies in NYC busy last week. After explaining to my friend Maya why you cannot actually make cheese out of this milk, and that this cheese must have had another milk added (cow's in this case), we then talked about all the people getting really serious about cheesemaking and cheese-expertise. That is really exciting as the cheese world needs more advocates.

This I hope translates in better cheese being demanded in more places. In my most recent trip, I noticed that JFK airport does not have a gourmet food store and instead everything sold in the duty free shops are imported brands of liquor, chocolate, cigarrettes, and fragances. This is also the case in other big airports in the US and Mexico. But not in Canada or Europe. Shanghai airport in China also has only international brands in it's shops.

Toronto, Reikjavik, London, Madrid, Dublin, Milan and Amsterdam (some of the most recent airports that I been in the past 4 years) have stores featuring local foods, brands, and gifts. Including cheese and other foods. I am not sure what is the reason behind this, but what I think is that the lack of local foods maybe be a signal of the declining pride that there is on national cuisines and products in these countries.

If anyone has a better explanation, let me know. For now I leave you with this reflection, which I hope leaves you thinking but without cheese - just like I got to my destination after being in JFK and Mexico City airport.

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