Monday, February 7, 2011

Cheese withdrawal

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone, hope the Year of the Rabbit is full of surprises.

It is now about two months since I got to China, however, not since I last had cheese. Soon after I ran out of the carefully packaged pieces of Camembert, Grayson and Roquefort that I smuggled into the country, I found the local distributor of Yellow Valley cheese in Xi'an. I bought three wheels and snack on it with joy. I even shared with Chinese and ex-pat friends, to a general consensus that it was nice but a little salty.

Those three mini-wheels also ran out and now I'm left with nothing to replace them. The new shipment from Shanxi comes until next week and I am in full withdrawal. I have cravings, dreams and my cheese obsessions fueled by tons of tweeter messages has turn my yearning into a crazy desperation.

While watching TV last night, we have been catching up on US and English TV series; I scream cheese pairings to drinks fictional characters were drinking. The night looked like this: when watching The Wire, it was all pungent cheeses and new American classics paired with US domestics beers drank by hunky Det. Mcnulty, then came the mountain cheeses and hard pressed Europeans to match decadent wines and after dinner drinks enjoyed by the Crawleys from the Abbey, to end with the sad moment of watching the terrible and completely wrong Sex and the City 2 movie only to dream about luxurious goat cheeses to pair with the copious amounts of bubbly and yearn for halloumi, quark, and farmer's cheeses to eat in the dessert oasis with fresh dates and sweet teas.

Oh how, I miss cheese!!!! Anyway, before I go crazy, I leave you with these two stories on cheese in China. First, a good post from Culture Magazine on Chinese cheeses and then a news story from the Telegraph on Beijing Grey Camembert.

Enjoy.

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