Although I don’t normally cheese blog, extreme circumstances sometimes call for extreme measures. As of Saturday the East Liberty Whole Foods in Pittsburgh had a decent number of small rounds of a truffled sheep cheese called Tartufello Pecorino. This is a cheese for which I would consider killing a man, yet is only slightly more available than the Duke Nukem sequel because Americans with tastes too refined for the chocolate-dipped twinkie generally limit their adventurousness to smoked gouda and pasteurized triple creme brie. Hence stores that take a chance on something truly memorable often throw much of their stock away, and thus don’t go out of their way to re-order cheeses like this or the equally missed Bleu de Basque Brebis.
You can help prevent that. If you can easily reach in the Pittsburgh area, stop by and see if you can secure one of these hockey puck-sized lifestyle upgrades for yourself (more expensive than a wedge of brie; cheaper than a Porsche)*. Even if you miss out on the current run, more people asking about the cheese will make it less likely that the sun will consume the Earth in a fiery apocalypse before they restock it.
For everyone else, chat about whatever.
(*) Do not accept a similar-sounding substitute, particularly not the one perversely coated in cinnamon, and then blame me for recommending non-sublime cheese.
DZ
I certainly agree with you re Bleu de Basque Brebis. I live in the SW of France about 4 months per year, and this cheese is made about 30 miles from my house. It’s always available in the local cheese store. In Portland, it is routinely available at Pastaworks
geg6
Well, Tim S’Liberty is too far away to go to pick up some cheese. However, if they would ever actually bring a Whole Foods out here to the sticks in Beaver County, I can guarantee I will be asking for the most exotic possible cheeses and perhaps, some Wagyu beef.
harlana pepper
“truffled sheep cheese”?
i don’t mean to whine, but i luvs me some cheese – i wish i could afford such cheese, farkin li-brul sheep cheese-eatin’ commie!
harlana pepper
here we go with another “foodie” thread.
(sigh)
:)
DZ
Great cheese online
http://www.artisanalcheese.com/
Aris
Three years ago, Trader Joe’s started selling a domestic, cave-aged artisan gorgonzola under their own name. It started as a Christmas special, lasted a few months and promptly disappeared since it seems I was the only one in the country to consider it the most superb gorgonzola I’ve ever eaten. I’m still searching from time to time for information on which artisan cheesemaker Trader Joe’s used, but to no avail. I remain very sad…
____________________________________________
canuckistani
If I have travel to Pittsburgh for cheese, I’d just as soon travel to France, where they have better wine and hockey.
Laura W
I like smoked gouda, Tim. But then, I’ve never met one cheese I don’t like.
I also like Leopard and Time Machine, so thanks a lot for that reco.
Leopard whacked out my Mail, but a nice Apple Care Dude walked me thru a very simple procedure that restored it all quickly.
Bill E Pilgrim
Not much of a cheese blog, is it?
I especially liked “to cheese blog” as a verb.
dbrown
Do they sell Tartufello Pecorino in CheeseWiz favor? Or is that what CheeseWiz normally is?
harlana pepper
neti pots and sheep cheese! jeebus what a bunch of elitists!
The Grand Panjandrum
Up here in northern New England we’ve got plenty of local cheesemakers providing us with plenty of very good cheese. The Coop Food Store also carries water buffalo cheese that is quite good (and locally made from locally raised water buffalo!). The rather large counter dedicated to a great variety of local and not-so-local cheese has a little basket of remnant pieces for purchase so you can try many different cheeses for a reasonable price.
DougJ
I can get the truffle cheese on Wegman’s. It is very good.
TheFountainHead - 'Easily Led'
Mmmmmmm….cheeeeessee!
harlana pepper
Anyways, since we are “fooding” I thought I would share – best farkin jam evars!!! I’m serious, if you’re into jam, it is to die for – also, it’s a very charming site, even if it is run by Western NC hippies
harlana pepper
fartz, where is my post, i’m hustling jam here
dammit
TheFountainHead - 'Easily Led'
I am sorry to report that “hustling jam” is not in my repertoire of slang and intertrons memes. Please advise!
The Saff
You know, I’m relatively new to this blog, but I just love reading the comments on all of the threads. You folks are insightful, enlightening, and down right funny. And the fact that cats are often a hot topic is a bonus.
gbear
But then again, you could go with the ever-popular favorite at the MN State Fair, the Deep Fried Twinkies on a Stick.
I heart the MN State Fair.
harlana pepper
@TheFountainHead – ‘Easily Led’:
here we go, just my contribution to the foodites here – it’s lost in moderation purgatory i guess
awesome jam/awesome site (my previous post was much more clever but i’m too disgusted to repeat it)
TheFountainHead - 'Easily Led'
I recently discovered deep fried Oreos–in Manhattan of all places! O Divine!
harlana pepper
@gbear:
Fried twinkies in MN??? I think that surpasses fried Pepsi, not sure.
Gabo
Heh. In the liberal elite neighborhood of Roslindale, I can buy Pecorino Tartufo (Pinzani) at my friendly neighborhood cheese store. I just had some last night. Best sliced thin, IMHO.
And yes, it is fabulous. One of my favorite cheeses. And, no, I don’t like the one covered in cinnamon. Why on earth would you overpower truffles?
OTOH, I also recommend Pave Sauvage…
Bill E Pilgrim
@Bill E Pilgrim:
BTW the correct response to my comment above was:
“The finest in the district!”
Slackers.
harlana pepper
I’m glad we downgraded from sheep cheese to fried twinkies – i don’t feel so darned ignernt.
gbear
@TheFountainHead – ‘Easily Led’:
I’m afraid I can’t say whether or not a fried Twinkie is divine. The review makes them sound much better than they actually look so I’ve managed to stay away. I will say that the deep fried batter dipped Milky Way and Snickers bars look even worse. A gooey brown cylinder…
@harlana pepper:
How do you fry Pepsi?
Awesom0
I’d like to see a post re-capping the absolute smackdown Hilzoy and the ObiWon bloggers gave Megan McCardle (aka Jane Galt as she once referred to herself) yesterday.
It’s really a thing of beauty to read. McCardle keeps trying to fire back, but digs herself in deeper each time.
redbeardjim
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Explain the logic underlying that conclusion.
gnomedad
@TheFountainHead – ‘Easily Led’:
As this is a foodie thread, it is possible that she is literally hustling jam.
Brick Oven Bill
Re: Open Thread
Today I will have a confrontation with a neighbor, who is a friend who has in common with me a gravel road on which we drive. He accused me of driving a white truck at high speed on this gravel road, contributing to rutting. The neighbors out here work together to maintain this road so rutting is a sensitive subject.
In any case, it was not me as I have my Ford Focus and not a truck. But I am not sure my friend is correct. My theory is that ruts in a road are spaced more or less evenly apart and that there is a resonance frequency associated with this spacing. The spacing would be a function of the average vehicle speed. And it is the speed that is associated with this resonance frequency that would be the most damaging to the gravel road.
Continuing with this theory, a truck travelling at high speed would simply skip over the tops of the ruts, because it would not be travelling at the resonance frequency, unless it was travelling a multiple of the base resonance frequency, in which case there would be a lot of damage to the road.
So I believe that the road would be best served by assigning every neighbor their own speed, say 17, 21, 25, 29, and 33 miles per hour. If there are any thoughts out there on this subject, I would enjoy them.
Bill E Pilgrim
@redbeardjim:
Soitenly.
Gabo
@Brick Oven Bill
Your theory sounds so plausible that even if it’s wrong, it should be considered right anyway. ( This might be an example of the difference between reshould’veism and rebunking). The only thing it’s missing is that (obviously!!) the assigned speed numbers should all be primes to avoid harmonics. Your assigned speeds should be 17, 19, 23, 31, and 37.
Punchy
Velveeta, bitches.
It melts. On mah not’choez
Nicole
JenJen and Mary- you know Rachel’s not running in the Belmont, yes? Bummer, but honestly, I’m not sure she could have won that one. Here’s hoping Calvin gets his jockey Triple Crown. I’m going with a friend- if John is kind enough to give us a Belmont thread I’ll post a few (likely drunken) updates via my iPhone. Belmont is such a beautiful track.
Oh- cheese. I like stinky ones, preferably raw-milk.
AwesomO- I’ll have to track down those smackdowns. I read that McCardle piece and it’s not often words on a screen get me to yell, “What? What?” as I am aware that the words are not likely to respond or do anything but get stupider but that piece of idiocy had me shrieking at the screen.
harlana pepper
@gbear: not sure, i guess you freeze it first, make little pepsi ice cubes?
Tim F.
@Gabo: Bill’s theory is simply wrong. I lived in Colorado and got to know a lot of people who maintain backcountry gravel roads. People driving heavy cars too fast causes rutting.
I prefer to call the effect ‘ribbing’ since the ruts run nearly perpendicular to the road, so it bounces you around like driving a large R/C car on corrugated tin. That said, I would agree with Bill that his Ford Focus is a bit small to cause major rutting. Unless it’s a private dead-end drive Bill should look for jerks in pickups or commercial vehicles passing through.
harlana pepper
gbear: back in the day, when I was hustling tacos, we used do the “fried ice cream” thingie wherein a ball of ice cream coated with some kind of crunchies, is dipped into the deep-fry for just a second, taken back out and served
however, if we were slammed we would often just flop the ball of unfried ice cream in a bowl – nobody ever complained :)
Face
I think you spelled “erosion” incorrectly.
But your spoof is hi-larious.
Edit: OK, I see TIm’s response and realize you’re referring to the perpendicular stretch marks, and not the wheel well grooves. My bad. I say blame raccoons.
harlana pepper
nope, nope, we are not going from sheep cheese to gravel roads on this thread – just wipe that BOB post outta yer minds
Xenos
@harlana pepper: Sounds like a recipe for third degree burns. Ever see the youtubes on How Not to Fry a Frozen Turkey?
Scary stuff.
cleek
yep.
start with one hole: tire goes in, comes up, springs compress. tire rolls a bit, springs expand, compressing the road surface. eventually this creates a new hole just down the road from the first.
Straight Dope
harlana pepper
@Xenos: I have! What a bunch of doofusses!
harlana pepper
damn, i really hate the fact that i have to leave a thread which progressed from sheep cheese to road ruts in 30 comments
you guys have fun
gnomedad
Kathleen Parker has had another sanity attack. With a hat tip to Sully, maybe we need a “John Cole Award Nominee” category.
Tim F.
@cleek: Then I correct myself. Bill was right and I didn’t read his theory properly.
Bill E Pilgrim
Sheep and rutting.
Tsk. One track minds.
TheFountainHead - 'Easily Led'
@Awesom0: Linkies pwease!
Brick Oven Bill
Thank you for your inputs on gravel roads, they have given me confidence for this evening. I do not know what it is about the Mozzarella cheese from the Super Wal Mart, but it is a different brand than the Mozzarella cheese from Sam’s Club, and much better by my taste.
I don’t know why the two stores have different brands of cheese, as they are both owned by the same company. Sam’s Club cheese is much cheaper though. You can get 5 pounds for under $10. This is what I usually buy.
Walker
@DougJ:
That is because Wegman’s >> Whole Foods.
Every time I have been to a Whole Foods I have been unimpressed. At Wegmans I can get my high end produce AND my Coco Puffs. It is just the right balance of good food and commodities.
Plus, in Ithaca, their foreign selection is amazing. The Polish area carries all the candy my wife grew up with. The foreign area also has a “Southern” section for me.
Indylib
@Awesom0:
I just got done reading through all of the posts and comments, it was a joy to behold. I did not know that Meagan McDumbtwit once advocated going after anti-war protesters with 2 x 4s, what a wankette.
Original Lee
@Bill E Pilgrim: Thanks a lot. Now I’ll be thinking about Stilton, Camembert, and Limburger all day.
Original Lee
Incidentally, one of my favorite things to do is to slice an Anjou pear into 16ths and then lay a thin slice of Stilton on top of each piece of pear. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Original Lee:
Then I really shouldn’t tell you that this place is down the street from my apartment.
Indylib
@Tim F.:
What?
I grew up on gravel and just plain dirt backroads in Colorado and ones that don’t get driven on more than twice a month get rutted very, very badly.
I can’t find teh google link to prove it, but I was always under the impression that the rutting was due to weather and temperature changes.
Keith
I semi-regularly get some kind of truffled cheese to eat on crackers…not sure if it’s pecorino, though (for those in the Texas area, HEB – especially Central Market – is the way to go for foodies, although Spec’s (the liquor store of all liquor stores in these parts) carries it, too, IIRC). Truffles in cheese is one of those things that could make an atheist believe in God; it’s that good of a combination.
BTW: This is as good a time as any to wholeheartedly recommend to anyone with the means to pick up a bottle of truffle oil some time. It’s about $10 for a small bottle, but will blow your mind, even on something as simple as plain pasta.
Xenos
@Bill E Pilgrim: Oy. Looks like heaven. I hope to moving to your part of the world in a year or two. I don’t know why my ancestors ever left Alsace.
Actually, I do know why. But I don’t think that will keep me away much longer.
Tim F.
Bill meant washboard ruts, not the erosive kind.
cleek
mine left because the land was cheaper in PA, in the 1840s.
Brick Oven Bill
Rutting is definitely due to vehicle traffic, you can tell because the ruts run perpendicular to vehicle flow, irregardless of the drainage and/or exposure to the elements. I have updated my proposed solution however.
Radar-absorption is accomplished by reflecting an ‘anti-signal’, which is 180 degrees out of phase with the original signal, cancelling it. In like manner, the mounding action that creates the ruts can be cancelled by a second mounding action, 180 degrees out of phase, acting to cancel the original mounding before it mounds.
Therefore, while the 17, 21, 25, 29, and 33 miles per hour idea would be an improvement over everybody doing 25; having one half of the neighbors drive 20 and the other drive 30 would be ideal. Or 24 and 36 miles per hour.
Unfortunately this will never happen in practice, and we will have to continue dragging a big tractor tire with a chain behind a pickup truck, back and forth, for probably ever.
Laura W
@Brick Oven Bill: Bill, you’re too smart to use “irregardless”.
Brick Oven Bill
It gave me a spell-check on that one Laura, and said I should capitalize ‘Irregardless’, which confused me and I over-rode it. Probably should have said ‘regardless’ huh.
Keith
@Laura W:
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed the use of the cursed “irregardless”
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
How much does the upgrade to Leopard cost? (Presumably you did it from Tiger?) My non-technie neighbor is thinking about that–he has Tiger on his MacBook–and all I could find on the Apple site was some indication that it would cost $129, i.e., full retail. True?
Krista
I can’t help you with the ruts, Bill, but the road I live on is a gravel road as well, and I have noticed that quick braking is a major contributor to the potholes on the road. We’ve been careful to brake very, very gradually as we approach our driveway, and so far, no potholes. Most of the other homes have a very impressive collection of potholes in front of their own driveways. The potholes are obviously caused by the friction of the tires on the road when braking.
That does rather suck that you have to maintain the road yourselves, though. Our provincial highway department grades our road and fills the potholes usually about 3-5 times a year.
Laura W
@Keith: I’ve seen him use it twice recently and really, you know…he’s normally so deliberate and concise with his facts and postings that I just felt obligated to help.
@Steeplejack: Yes, from Tiger. I got the 5-user pack from Amazon. The single user is $113 thru your Balloon Juice affiliate link, of course.
I also got an external HD since I didn’t have one. Wish I could send you the disc but I foolishly forked it over to co-workers, who as it turns out, don’t even need it.
Edit: I didn’t click thru but I noticed Amazon had: “New and used from $80”. Not sure what used means in this context. A 5-pack with more uses left?
Steeplejack
@cleek:
The Steeplejacques left Alsace in the 1750s, supposedly because of religious persecution (they were Protestant). The parents died on the way over (yellow fever), and the six children were put out as indentured servants when they got to Philadelphia.
So says family lore, anyway.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Thanks for the info.
I don’t want to highjack the thread, but why did you upgrade, if it was something more than just “It’s better to have the latest and greatest”?
My neighbor is 65, really deep into “You kids get off my lawn!” syndrome, he hasn’t taken the time to get to know his computer–he mainly uses it to watch DVDs, of all things–and so when he has a problem he tends to pluck solutions out of thin air. “I think I need to upgrade to Leopard!”
One recent problem was that “Word had crashed,” which turned out to be that he had 17 copies of the same envelope stuck in the print queue. I don’t even know how he was able to do that–or why he wouldn’t stop after, oh, five or six.
But I digress.
Laura W
@Steeplejack: I upgraded for only one reason: to have access to Time Machine in order to back up two years’ plus worth of very important work and art shit (and a gabazzillion kitty photos) on my MacBook Pro. Believe me…”If it works, don’t touch it” is my mantra when it comes to almost anything computer or electronic!
Sounds like you missed my post when I did upgrade (Oh, yeah…I posted under Crazy Kale Lady!) but my Mail program was totally screwed up. I nearly vomited. Realized I had 90 days free Apple Support so found a very nice man on the phone who figured it out for me. Just needed to drag two thingey whatevers out of some file and trash them and restart. You’re welcome.
If your neighbor is happy and everything is functional, LEAVE IT ALONE, I say. I almost didn’t upgrade after reading numerous horror stories on the Mac Forums, but a co-worker talked me down and promised me I’d live and it’d be OK. It was, and is. There is only one thing I don’t like about it (When I save attachments I want them on my desk top and not in some Download Storage place in my dock) but I’m sure there is a simple preference for me to flip to remedy that. I’d rather bitch about it for a while, of course.
Edit: That damn print queue is cunning. Seriously. Always trying to fuck with me too.
KRK
If anyone thinking about sheep cheese is still reading this thread, any tips on how to find real Slovak bryndza in the U.S.? Preferably in the greater Seattle or Minneapolis-St. Paul areas?
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Word. But the situation is the reverse: Neighbor guy hasn’t taken the time to learn how to use his computer, so he is constantly screwing things up or is unable to do what he wants to do (e.g., print the envelope for his belligerent letter to his doctor). I’m the one who’s always telling him that he should buy a book or spend some time with the help system–and hinting that the real problem is, er, “user error”–but he is deaf to that. “I need more RAM. I need Leopard.” Et cetera. So I tell him I will check on these things for him. If I go back and say, “You can get Leopard, but it will cost a hundred bucks,” that might get him to buy MacBook for Dummies or some such.
Short version is that everything is functional except the neighbor, and he isn’t happy. Don’t know that there’s a solution to the problem, but it probably isn’t Leopard. Just told him I would check, though.
Thomas Allen
Di Bruno Brothers in Philly has some similar cheeses, and they ship. I recommend the Caciotta al Tartufo.
Thomas Allen
KRK – I know this probably won’t suffice, but my friend’s mom always schmeared feta and butter together as a sub for bryndza. I’ve never had actual bryndza, so I can’t tell you how close this comes.
Laura W
@Steeplejack:
Clearly he needs to dump the Mac and get a PC.
(Obligatory quip.)
Joel
Aren’t you still a graduate student or a post-doc? I know that I’m one, and my cheese adventurousness is limited to Trader Joe’s.
By the way, the Basque Shephard’s Cheese tastes like ass.
thomas
where do I get chocolate dipped twinies???
Do I have to do it myself?
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Yes. Somewhat surprised we didn’t inadvertently spark a flame war.
Gotta blow for the part-time gig.
Zuzu's Petals
An excellent creamery/website worth checking out for those who like to support Oregon enterprises:
Rogue Creamery
The blues are superb.
KRK
@Thomas Allen:
Thanks, TA. I’ll keep that in mind.
monkeyboy
@Walker:
in Ithaca, their foreign selection is amazing. The Polish area carries all the candy my wife grew up with.
Once on a trans-Atlantic flight before the fall of the Berlin wall we were served little wrapped candies. Reading the label we found that they were made in Poland out of potato sugar. They were fine but not particularly distinctive.
Our guess was that the airline had been stuck with a bunch of nonconvertible Złoty and had to spend them on something.
in canaduh
I remember seeing “cheese in a tube” toothpaste style around 1990 in boston and wondering WTF is wrong with these people?