French Cheese

[Matt Rayner]

Now, you, on here may have your opinions on us Europeans.

But none of you Americans has EVER made a decent cheese.

[Notes_Norton]

French Brie, English Cheddar, Italian Scamorza, Dutch Gouda, Swiss Gruyère, and so on, Mrs. Notes and I usually buy European or Australian cheese.

Why? She has a reaction to A1 milk products, and most USA cheese is A1. Most of European and Australian is from A2 milk.

There are good cheeses in the USA.

I've been to Europe, Spain, Italy, Gibraltar, Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, and England/Scotland/Wales (which aren't really in Europe). I enjoyed my visits very much, I enjoyed the Europeans and the food, too.

My opinion of the Europeans? Same as everywhere else I've traveled, mostly populated by nice people, but sadly, infiltrated by a few jerks.

I've also been to all 50 USA states, plus 4 US territories, and enjoyed my visits, the people, and the food here, too.

I've done Asia, Africa, and the Americas/Caribbean, as well. 

Of all the places I've been to, there are only three I'd like to live in, the USA, Spain, and Australia. Of all the places I've visited, I enjoyed them all.

From Jamaica to China, to Austria, to Florida, to Alaska, to Australia, to Hawaii, to Labrador, to Moscow, most people are just trying to live a happy life, and make the world a decent place for their children.

And most governments are servants of the greedy, rich, and powerful. I think it has always been that way, the only thing that changes are the details and the technology.

 

Notes ♫

[Rain]

At first glance, the cheese selection down here was a little underwhelming to say the least. That's compared to Québec.

France would be a whole other level.

But I've managed to find some decent ones. 

Asking mayonnaise instead of ketchup with French fries can also provoke reactions ranging from curiosity to mild annoyance to exasperation and disgust.

And for some reason, dijon mustard is frowned upon - especially by people who use the word patriot a lot. Those folks would probably have a heart attack if they heard of dijonnaise.

One of the hardest adjustments to make was to learn to properly mispronounce "croissant".  I really wish they would call it "crescent" and make everyone's life easier.  

Other than that, I agree with Bob concerning people being mostly nice, with a sprinkling of jerks. And of course, there's the herd effect, which is universal, so even nice people can easily be manipulated into being complete *****holes, no matter the nationality.

I always remember my few months in Russia very fondly because of the people, and how friendly they were. I also had some of the very best meals of my life there - which was a surprise. I went there expecting 3 months of potato soup, potato ice cream, potato bread... How wrong I was! I still miss the food.

If I judged the country by the political circumstances when I was there, with the tanks on the streets and military personnel everywhere on election night, my opinion might be a tad different. Not to mention historical events and the current situation. But the people? They were great, and would go out of their way to assist and speak a few words of English.

Edited April 21 by Rain

[craigb]

52 minutes ago, Rain said:

I always remember my few months in Russia very fondly because of the people, and how friendly they were.

Proof! 😁

(Backstory, I asked him to take a picture of him in front of the "Onions" and he did so I had to save it! 🙂)

[Rain]

I see this picture and all I can think of is how cold, even for this Canadian. 

[pwal³]

british and french cheeses ftw mmmm

[pwal³]

so after posting that comment, youtube is now offering me cheese videos 🙄

[Shane_B.]

Wow. Who would have thought the topic of cheese could bring us all so close together like this.

🙄

[Notes_Norton]

For lunch, I'm going to have a grilled cheese sandwich.

Two slices of seeded bread. Inside a thick slice of Danish Havarti, another thick slice of Irish Kerrygold Dubliner, and a bit of crumbled bacon (optional). Heated in a pan with a generous amount of Finlandia butter until browned, and then served with a fried egg on top and some pancake syrup. Plus a glass of California Cabernet Sauvignon wine on the side.

Sometimes instead of the bacon inside, some fresh strawberries on the side is nice.

Mrs. Notes invented these, and IMO it's the best grilled cheese sandwich, ever.

 

For us, the cheese is better if it's whole milk cheese. We shy away from part-skim cheese. The flavor is in the fat.

 

Also, the cheese should be from A2 cows. How to tell? If she eats it and gets black eyes the next day, it's A1. That excludes most USA cheeses.

I've read A1 cows give more milk. But one of the amino acids has a mutation, instead of it being a proline it's a histidine. That turns into histamine, which you need an antihistamine to combat. At least that's the way I understand it.

I also read that one of the few bulls imported to the “new world” had the mutation, but the cows it sired gave more milk, so the lucky bull got to breed with a lot of cows. So did its descendants.

What I do know for sure, is she has a sensitivity to A1 milk, so we avoid that.

 

Notes ♫

 

[pwal³]

isn't A2 smaller than A1?

[craigb]

2 hours ago, pwal³ said:

isn't A2 smaller than A1?

No, a 2 is twice as big as a 1. 😜

[John Maar]

The PapiLLus Fromagerie here in Arcachon is one block from my apartment. My dogs love the place. The owner will occasionally give them a cheese treat when we pass by on one of our daily walks. The dog in the photo is always there or across the street by their son's shop. They have a huge selection of French and a couple of Basque cheeses. The first time I went in there after moving here, I thought, dang, they're as or more expensive than what was imported to the States. Then I remembered that the prices were per kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). Whew. Cheese heaven.

 

 

As long as we're talking about dairy products, the glaces (ice creams) here are superb. Lots of small shops sell cones and cups. My favorite is just around the corner from my apartment. This guy has the best glaces, gives you more per scoop than the other shops and charges less (2,50 € vs 3 €). Here's a photo I took at 10:30 pm during the summer vacation period (July and August). Arcachon is a popular holiday and vacation destination in France. It becomes a ZOO in the summer. Just look at the line all that way across the street that late at night.

 

Edited April 22 by John Maar

[pwal³]

your town needs more glaciers

[John Maar]

2 hours ago, pwal³ said:

your town needs more glaciers

Oh, hell no. Arcachon is at the same latitude as Boston, but in my 3 winters here, it has snowed only once, with zero accumulation except on the edges of roofs of buildings and cold cars. Gone in a couple of hours.

But we have a lot of glacesiers. 🍨

Edited April 22 by John Maar

[craigb]

Yep.  People are so messed up here that some consider this chemical concoction cheese! 🙄

You can see how they had to sell it back in the day! 😆

[John Maar]

17 minutes ago, craigb said:

Yep.  People are so messed up here that some consider this chemical concoction cheese! 🙄

You can see how they had to sell it back in the day! 😆

I heard that the manufacturing process was so gross that employees had to sign non-disclosure agreements before starting on the job. Velveeta may look yellow, but a process controls engineer who had to enter the plant for some repairs/upgrades told me he saw a lot of "green". That's all he would say.

Edited April 22 by John Maar

[paulo]

4 hours ago, craigb said:

Yep.  People are so messed up here that some consider this chemical concoction cheese! 🙄

You can see how they had to sell it back in the day! 😆

What do you think is the message here...?

[Notes_Norton]

16 hours ago, John Maar said:

Arcachon is a popular holiday and vacation destination in France.

I haven't been to France yet, but it's on my list.

I played in a band, here in the USA with a French man who went back to France and became famous, Gilbert Montagne.

I've been to Quebec, Canada, which has a lot of French-speaking people, and I enjoyed it. I play in an RV park when man of them spend the winter, and they are a great audience.

One of these days I'll get to France. We can only take one vacation per year, and we have been visiting places that are changing rapidly. Before COVID we were planning to go to Madagascar. But we put that off, after the lockdown, and with their internal troubles, it's been put on the proverbial back burner.

This year we went to Hawaii, while Kilauea was erupting. 

 

[Starship Krupa]

On 4/20/2024 at 11:17 PM, Rain said:

I always remember my few months in Russia very fondly because of the people

You might like the TETRIS movie that came out recently. Most of it takes place in Moscow and involves a friendship between an American entrepreneur and the Russian programmer who created TETRIS. As part of the business dealings that led to TETRIS coming to the rest of the world and doing more to damage productivity in Capitalist countries than any other subversion could have.😄

I have a love for the Russian people in general just because of how much of the world's bacon their forebears saved as the Eastern Front in WWII. Germany having to fight on two fronts, and one of them being Napoleon's bane.

I get tears thinking about the awful way so many of those heroic soldiers and partisans were treated by the Stalinist government. Plenty of them, their only crime was being shown mercy by German soldiers who realized that they were already beaten and let them go after capturing them (imagine being treated better by Nazis than your own government). And then the decades of Animal Farm nastiness that followed.

I was first made aware of it via this song by Al Stewart, a favorite of my pre-teen years. It's an ode to those brave boys and girls:

 

Edited April 23 by Starship Krupa

[Notes_Norton]

On 4/23/2024 at 2:36 PM, Starship Krupa said:

I have a love for the Russian people in general

I have a love for Russian Classical Music. Some of my favorite composers are:
Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsokov, Shostakovitch, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Glazunov, Balakirev, Arensky, and a few others.

As far as Russian People, the few that I have met have been nice people.

In all my travels, I find the world populated by mostly nice people, with, unfortunately, a small percentage of jerks.

As far as governments are concerned, I think they serve special interest groups and not the people of the country they lead.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫