Mimolette

Got a hunk of mimolette at the cheese counter the other day.

Me and mimolette go way back. Akiko and I together have developed a taste for good cheese since getting married, and one of the things we discovered when we lived in Japan a few years ago was that you can't get good cheese in Japan.

Not very easily, at least. Cheese is eaten in Japan, widely, but for the most part it's a cheese so mild that it makes Velveeta taste real in comparison. But a few hoity-toity supermarkets carry a few reasonably flavorful imported cheese, in miniscule quantities at gagworthy prices to be sure.

It so happened the neighborhood we lived in had a couple of hoity-toity supermarkets within walking distance, and so every once in a while we'd splurge on some real cheese. And that's where I discovered mimolette. The bright orange, almost red, color made it look like the most potentially flavorful cheese on the shelf.

The wiki says it tastes like parm, maybe with a hazelnut sheen. I guess. I always thought of it as a really dry, really sharp cheddar - but that's probably the color playing with me. Maybe imagine a really dry sharp cheddar crossed with a gouda, and divided by parm? Anyway, it's a good muscle-y cheese.