.

When first we tasted it fresh from the keg with salty milk dripping
through our fingers, we gave it full marks. This was at the Staikos
Brothers Greek-import store on West 23rd Street in Manhattan. We then
compared Feta with thin wisps of its grown-up brother, Casere. This
gray and greasy, hard and brittle palate-tickler of sheep's milk made
us bleat for more Feta.

Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola, least pretentious of the Blues triumvirate (including
Roquefort and Stilton) is nonetheless by common consent monarch of all
other Blues from Argentina to Denmark. In England, indeed, many
epicures consider Gorgonzola greater than Stilton, which is the
highest praise any cheese can get there. Like all great cheeses it
has been widely imitated, but never equaled. Imported Gorgonzola, when
fruity ripe, is still firm but creamy and golden inside with rich
green veins running through. Very pungent and highly flavored, it is
eaten sliced or crumbled to flavor salad dressings, like Roquefort.

Hable Creme Chantilly

The name Hable Creme Chantilly sounds French, but the cheese is
Swedish and actually lives up to the blurb in the imported package:
"The overall characteristic is indescribable and delightful
freshness."

This exclusive product of the Walk Gaerd Creamery was hailed by Sheila
Hibben in _The New Yorker_ of May 6, 1950, as enthusiastically as
Brillat-Savarin would have greeted a new dish, or the Planetarium a
new star:

Endeavoring to be as restrained as I can, I shall merely suggest
that the arrival of Creme Chantilly is a historic event and that
in reporting on it I feel something of the responsibility that
the contemporaries of Madame Harel, the famous cheese-making lady
of Normandy, must have felt when they were passing judgment on
the first Camembert.

Miss Hibben goes on to say that only a fromage a la creme made in
Quebec had come anywhere near her impression of the new Swedish
triumph. She quotes the last word from the makers themselves: "This is
a very special product that has never been made on this earth before,"
and speaks of "the elusive flavor of mushrooms" before summing up,
"the exquisitely textured curd and the unexpectedly fresh flavor
combine to make it one of the most subtly enjoyable foods that have
come my way in a long time."

And so say we--all of us.

Hand Cheese

Hand cheese has this niche in our Cheese Hall of Fame not because we
consider it great, but