The dreaded blue cheese… We’ve all heard of it… We all knew some older relative who liked it just a little too much… we’ve all just assumed it was disgusting so we never tried it…
To be fair that’s just been my excuse.
Now normally I’d preach of how picky eaters are annoying and how they should just eat it and learn to love it.
I have in my adult life never been a picky eater. And to my mother reading this I say, my childhood does not count and my complaining about food is irrelevant because I always ate it anyway…
So here I am. A guy that thinks he’d be ok to eat just about anything (If it wouldn’t kill him, and was also prepared properly) and I’ve got one blemish on my otherwise perfect record… Blue cheese… Ah… Just the name itself brings shivers down my spine… You may think I “overexaggerate” but to you I say, “Hey… I’m writing a blog post. Go away. I’m too busy for such groundless claims from what I assume came from clearly questionable sources…” and that is what I say. I’m saying it now. Surprise!
On to the topic of todays post, it is trying new foods. And to my mother reading this again, firstly I’d like to say “hello :)” because I don’t text you enough and I know you worry… And secondly I would say “-yes I know that Ive tried it before when I was younger, but I barely remember my childhood and younger me did all kinds of things that I would NEVER do now, so who’s to say hating blue cheese wasn’t one of them.”
That is why today, ladies and gentlemen, I shall be doing just that! Trying some forsaken mould abomination and not overexaggerate!
Well. Thanks to the most helpful cheese vendor at the local cheese store, Parigi, I was able to acquire two particular strains of cheese that is also blue. 
The right cheese was the mildest the store had to offer. Its flavour was the first thing I noticed in fact it was more the lack of one. When the cheese first touched my tongue the flavour was like a hard goat cheese, the classic creamy texture came along with the flavour. As you chew it however the flavour gets sharper and you start to taste the bite in the back of your throat. The texture is smooth but slightly gritty. The mix of the salty, bitter, and sour nature of the cheese is noticeable but not overpowering by any measure. The smell is like that of most goat cheeses, it shares the salty scent. Small blue veins decorate sections of the surface of the otherwise white cheese.
The left cheese is very different. As soon as Parigi brought that baby out It looked almost entirely dark blue. It… It was so dark. When I tasted it the flavour was intense to say the least. It tasted sour but it was also salty and somehow sweet all the while being very creamy and crumbly. In truth, I’m still in slightly in a state of shock. The whole thing was a riot.. as the cheese crumbles the small crumbs of cheese seem to burst with the sour flavour of the mould. The taste does more than linger in the back of your throat.. The flavour very quickly made it clear that anything more than the small shaving would be too much. The smell was also powerful. salty and sour but different from the combination of the two in the flavour. It smells like old and cheese. Go figure…
As I digested the new sensations my mind was just rushing with possible flavour combinations and the realization that i am now at risk of becoming the weird older relative with the obsession with blue cheese. The sharp nature of the second cheese would pair very well with roasted root vegetables or in a squash soup, the flavour would blend and compliment themselves. It falls into the category of sharp cheeses like old cheddar but its bite is uniquely sour. A flavour that would be hard to imitate.
So what did I learn about my palate?
After tasting blue cheese as an adult I’d have to say I didn’t so much learn something new about my pallet besides finding an other flavour that agrees with it. I’d say that after this new evaluation of the cheese I look forward to eating the rest of the blue cheese sitting in my fridge.
I never could think of any flavour that i didn’t like but i also couldn’t remember what blue cheese tasted like so it confused me as to why i supposedly didn’t like bluecheese. From now on yet the biggest change ill be making when tasting food will be to try and be able to pick out unique flavours like that of the cheese in foods. Also to be able to make foods using blue cheese to compliment other delicious flavours.
I learned one more thing that I don’t have in common with my younger self. I welcomed a new cheese into my life. Cheese is one of the best things. This was a good day.
Eat well, my friends.
SARB 