Le fromage

When I think of cheese the word just does jive or come close to what it means here (in France). It not only is part of the food culture but a huge part of a way of life and for those who are true "connaisseurs" it is almost a cult when it comes to eat it, pairing it with which wine or just taking sides for one's preferred fromage  or being a self declared expert on it.In order to do it justice in this short post I will address it as "fromage" as it is called here. We've all heard about strong fromage, stinky fromage and worse when we mention one of my favorite foods of all time: fromage ! I have been here for a few weeks and had a great fromage based time (don't go there, this is a G rated post !) with my sister buying her own fromage and me buying what I really like and miss when I'm in Texas. I ate fromage every day for every meal for almost four weeks. It might be time to go next week but no regrets even for my waist line. I did mention earlier that my sister leaves her fromage at room temperature and rightfully so. The French people who have visited me in Texas over the years have all been horrified of the way we handle the fromage over here. For the fromages eaten in France full flavored does not even qualify it. We are talking about soft and semi soft fromages. The flavor is just a medley of sensory things: piquant, creamy, aged, unique character, strong flavor, tingly, nutty,just to name a few. I do not eat butter with fromage but the bread here is the perfect partner and that is enough, no apples nuts or other things needed. Do not even think of mentioning baked brie !We've all heard it before, bread, cheese and wine is a great combination but I don't know if most everyone can appreciate the greatness of that combination until they have traveled to Western Europe. France offers hundreds of different kinds of fromages and for those of you who do not eat cheese, wait until you visit there and you just might change your mind I know you probably will.