A cheese by any other name....

I really like cheese. Admittedly, as a child my contact with the stuff was limited to bland Kraft slices. Like sliced soap. Over time, I've developed a broader appreciation and taste for cheese at large. The rich, creamy bries, musty camemberts, crumbly old cheddars, redolent blues and pungent washed rinds - I love them all. 

But compared with the Dutch and their passion for this stuff they call kaas, I am, I confess, a cheese virgin.

I had early clues that the relationship between the Dutch and cheese is special. I remember Mark and Ellen - my beloved dutch expatriate in-laws - talking over the table about how they wanted to lose weight, discussing which foods they might cut back on. Bread, bacon and potatoes were mentioned. Desserts were out. As they talked over lunch, they casually sliced and ate cheese from a block the size of a bread bin. It did not enter the conversation. Slicing and eating that cheese was like breathing. The unspoken message was - we can diet, yes - but cheese is not negotiable. 

Although we have a well-equipped kitchen in our apartment in Dordrecht, it does not have an egg flip. The proprietor must hold the view we can do without one of those. There is, however, a cheese slice - clearly indispensible. When I pointed this out to a nederlander, she said, without irony, that I could turn over the egg with that.

I mention these things only to demonstrate that cheese is important here. 

As newcomers to Dordrecht, immersing ourselves in all things Dutch, we have been delighted to find a magnificent kaasboer (cheese shop) in the Vriesestraat, five minutes walk from our apartment. And what a shop it is!

This shop stinks, in the most organic, rich, earthy, wonderful, cheesy way. It is alive. There is cheese everywhere, from everywhere. Chunks of it are thoughtfully cut from massive wheels, ready to buy. Small pieces are set on wooden platters to sample. 

There are soft cheeses,oozing, running off the boards, restrained gently by timber cylinders. Whoofy blue cheeses, daring you to try them. Dutch farm cheeses, from the soft, springy, mild, very young, to increasingly mature cheeses, yellowing and crumbling with the years. And there are amazing spiced cheeses, challenging for the purist, with cloves, carraway and truffle.

When you have done drooling and tasting, feel that to linger any longer over the smells and samples might be inappropriate, the gentle shopkeeper approaches. He helps you with your selection, weighs and wraps it carefully in  waxed paper. Without fail, he escorts you to the door, opens it and bids you good day.

I read in the paper yesterday, without surprise, that this shop, Gert Jan de Kaasboer, has just been awarded best specialty cheese shop in the Netherlands. Fancy that, our cheese shop!