caddyman: (coat of many colours)
caddyman ([personal profile] caddyman) wrote2006-08-25 10:47 am
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Whey out west

This weekend serves both as the final bank holiday this side of Christmas and [livejournal.com profile] wallabok’s birthday do so it is out to buy significant amounts of the smelliest cheeses I can find at lunchtime ahead of the trip out to South Cambridgeshire tomorrow.

As much as I love my cheese, I am always a just a little wary of buying it in town and lugging it home. Not, I might add, that I have much choice. True, Waitrose have a reasonable cheese and deli counter, but it is limited. Sainsbury’s is about the same. No, if I want proper cheese, it has to be bought from somewhere central and that almost inevitably means the Rippon Cheese Store in Upper Tachbrook Street, Pimlico. I still like Neal’s Yard Dairy, but either of their outlets (Neal’s Yard and Borough Market) is just too far away from the office to make a trip at lunchtime a viable proposition and I don’t want to trail into the West End or out to Borough after work when I would much rather go home. Anyway, good as they are, Neal’s Yard only do cheeses from the British Isles, where as the Rippon Cheese Store casts its net wider.

Anyway, getting the stuff home is always problematic – particularly this time of year. A good cheese is almost invariably a steeenky cheese and a selection costing around twenty quid is not to be sniffed at.1 There is no way of wrapping the stuff that prevents the smell escaping; three layers of grease-proof paper, a card carrier and a plastic bag won’t do it, neither will more plastic wrapping. Shoving all that into a rucksack and zipping it shut doesn’t help much, either – it just takes a little longer for the smell to ooze out. Believe, me I have tried over the years but the smell of cheese will out.

Especially on a tube train where it is altogether too warm. Oh dear.

The only answer is to wave the bag around proudly and prominently, proving that the odd odour is emanating from dairy products, not insufficient hygiene. It can still be a bit of a pain, though.

Ho hum. May as well make the selection really stinky.

1Ha!

[identity profile] ellefurtle.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
And this cheese is coming in the car with us?

You'd better get some I like is all I can say! hehehe

[identity profile] caddyman.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
Well wrapped, stored in the boot with the windows down and a fair wind while driving...

We should be OK.

Have you got a gas mask...?

[identity profile] fencingsculptor.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:07 am (UTC)(link)
I have a gas mask.

I have a spare Gas mask...

Oh Hang on I have TWO Spare gas masks.......

This sounds familiar...

.....and before anyone gets the wrong idea, they are wwII items and a modern one for working with fibreglass !

Anyway the reason I was posting (yes there was one) Was that my Friend Christine recently gave me some extremeeeeely stinky French camembert which originated near here home town of Vibres (SP?) Near Les Mans in France.


I found sealing it in a tupperware container in the fridge worked well.

Use a tupperware container !


[identity profile] caddyman.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:18 am (UTC)(link)
A good cheese will always find a way to escape...

[identity profile] fencingsculptor.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:25 am (UTC)(link)
And how pray tell can a cheese escape....from a tupperwear container ?

Sprout arms ?

[identity profile] failing-angel.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
That just sounds rude.

[identity profile] failing-angel.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
Do you have a tupperware box you could use? Or is this spontaneous cheese-buying?

[identity profile] failing-angel.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:44 am (UTC)(link)
What about adding some Époisses de Bourgogne to the selection?

[identity profile] caddyman.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 11:59 am (UTC)(link)
Not allowed on the Paris Metro? Are you trying to get me lynched?

[identity profile] failing-angel.livejournal.com 2006-08-25 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh - I can see it now, fear and paranoia about strange new bio-devices on the tube.

[identity profile] drjohnsilence.livejournal.com 2006-08-26 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
You can now get a wide range of Neal's Yard cheeses in our local Wholefoods supermarket.

Quite took my breath away, that did. As did the Stilton.