Cheese Monday - LambChopper

Been quite busy dealing with Festival Applications for my Film Chocolate Milk. Hopefully I'll have some good news on that front soon! So this Cheese Monday is a day late, so hope you haven't been waiting in delirious anticipation at your local cheese counter since yesterday!

Last week, I talked about a cheese that is very hard to find, so I decided I would talk about one is easily more attainable. 1 "Lamb Chopper"! A aged sheep milk cheese by Cypress Grove that is delightfully buttery in taste and appearance. The texture is not hard but definitely not brie-ey, unless you are chewing it. The rind is a natural wax so DO NOT eat it. (Even if its the last piece, believeeee meeee.) Also, the rennet is vegetarian and the milk is pasteurized for those of your with your fancy diets.

I always picture Lambs riding in a helicopter for the name, but as you can see they prefer lambs riding motorcycles....2

In any case, THIS is definitely a crowd pleaser cheese and makes everyone come back for seconds. Every time I serve this cheese I have to write down the name for someone who's gotta get it to eat glutinously in the privacy of their closet. Enjoy!!

1 Last week's cheese means getting on a CSA mailing list and hoping that it will become available. If it does, then all you have to do is drive up to the Bay area. So easyyyy eh?!

2 I definitely never pictured me arguing about lambs favorite way of transportation....

Figs & Flea Street

Oh how I loooovvvvveee figs! I never even had a fig, until I lived in Cali for a few years.( I sometimes struggle with trying new fruit after a disturbing experience with Sourpsop.) But I must say, its become one of my favorites and I'm excited for its arrival each year! An interesting fig antidote, after I started giving fig preserves out at Xmas, I learned of my Abuelita's love of them and how my Abuelito drove over her fig tree one fall to her utter despair. 1

So recently we took our friends out to a nice dinner for their wedding present at Flea St. Cafe . The meal was going along great and the owner Jesse Cool 2 even visited our table to chat. Ms. Cool was excited that we were young, appreciated good local food and were in her restaurant. hah! She even brought out her awesome chef Carlos Canada to greet us as well. And he was very sweet & sent us out a complimentary prosciutto & fig salad. The salad was extremely tasty, but what put it over the top was the fresh figs. They had gotten them from a lady in the neighborhood who walked in with a big box and offered to sell it to them. 3 Carlos said once they had tasted the figs, there was no going back. (Seems like this could be a scene out of Scarface, but substitute figs for cocaine.)

In any case, these Figs were everything and more that you expect a fig to be. So much pink juiciness oozing out, like eating a bite of summer. Sadly, it was our friends first time eating a fig, so now she must live with a super high standard. But there are worse things.... So when it came time to ask for dessert, we asked for just a plate of more figs and they happily supplied it. Definitely became one of our most memorable meals ever! Sighhhh, if only figs happened all year, but then I guess they wouldn't be so special...

NOTES:

1 People were so wild back in the day, everybody seems to be running over everything. Did cars have breaks?

2 So many people out in CA change their last names. So hip. I think I would change my last name to butter.....

3 I love how its ok to sell produce/eggs/honey from your backyard here in CA