The Beauty of the Cheese Cart
Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures. –M. F. K. Fisher
Is there any happier appearance at the end of a meal than that of a three-tiered cheese cart?
Since I wrote that sentence, several minutes ago, I have sat here in a hard wooden chair pulled right up to a desk, poised for productivity, but instead only staring off into the distance, thoughts of Tête de Moine filling my head. Cheese cart revelry not only makes me happy, but apparently brain dead.
So how about a story? On Sunday, I had the pleasure to sit in what can only be described at the Anthropologie of restaurants. Filled with antiques and quirky, weathered visual delights, it was the sort of restaurant in which you want to linger over a bottle of wine, buy the homemade potted quince jam, make friends with the owner when she puts her hand on the back of your chair, and stay all afternoon with a great friend or two. So that’s what we did. The restaurant was filled with the rich, heady scents of truffles, the cozy smell of soufflé batter and melting cheese, and when I took the first bite of bleu d’Auvergne with a small, seed-filled dried fig, I could have died right there, I was so happy.
But cheese carts, even in fine restaurants, don’t come along as often as I’d like. No matter, as fine restaurants won’t be coming around as often as I’d like in the coming months, either! And anyway, why go in search of a cheese cart when the cheese course is perhaps the most easily replicated thing in a restaurant?
Brillat-Savarin quipped that “a dinner which ends without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye.” Well, whatever, Brillat (love your cheese, though, man!). But why not just skip the whole dinner part entirely and feast solely on the cheese?
I like the feel of the two person party that’s evoked when Sebastian heads up the street to our local cheese shop and comes home with a bottle of wine tucked under his arm and toting a white paper bag filled with duck rillette, three different cheeses, and a loaf of bread.
For your own cheese course, you could be all rulesy and pick one goat’s milk, one sheep’s milk, and one cow’s milk, or pick one cheese that’s creamy, one that’s hard, and one that is somewhere in the middle. Or you could just close your eyes, spin around, and point. The long and the short of it is, what could be simpler or more satisfying than unwrapping the little paper packages, spreading out your feast on the coffee table, leaning back into your sofa with a glass of wine, and eating cheese for dinner with the one you love. Cart or no, that’s certainly one brand of perfection.
Lucy: Fine sentiments indeed.1 year ago
Loulou: To answer your question, “Is there any happier appearance at the end of a meal than that of a three-tiered cheese cart?”
No!1 year ago
Anonymous: That sounds positively lovely, were I to stock up on Lactaid first
1 year ago
Sarah: @lucy, ah, to live life in france. you must just see more cheese carts than you can shake a stick at!
@loulou — ha! glad we’re in agreement.
@anon, oh you poor thing. to be lactose intolerant is such a cruel fate, indeed.1 year ago
Scott at Realepicurean: My dad is a cheese cart addict; not in replacement of a desert but rather in addition to. I’m slowly becoming a convert, too!1 year ago
Kristina: Great post! It not occurs to me that I’ve *never* been fortunate enough to encounter a cheese cart. Ah, to live in a more culturally enlightened place than Binghamton. Someday.1 year ago
Lisa (dinner party): Love, love, love a cheese plate for dinner.
I also love Grab–sounds like we are neighbors.1 year ago
Gina: Cheese is one of the greatest things on earth. My boyfriend and I probably consume a ridiculous amount, but I can’t seem to stop myself! At any given time you can find probably 4 different cheeses in my fridge! It is a bad habit, but one I never plan to break!1 year ago
ellis: What a lovely sentiment- and as someone who is lacking on one I love at the moment, may I give an endorsement to the ability of a little wine, cheese and crusty bread to make even the single person reflect on the pure and simple pleasures of life?1 year ago
Julia: Ooooh delicious! I too love cheese of all kinds, am slightly obsessed by it in fact, and so I really enjoyed reading this post in particular. May I recommend a book called The Cheese Room by Patricia Michelson - it is like erotic literature for cheese-fiends!1 year ago
hobbit: mmm! my favorite dinner! well, maybe it’d have to list a rare steak as the ultimate. but cheese course is a close second.
now, steak followed by cheese course… that would probably kill me. in a good way. lol1 year ago
Dana McCauley: I’m all for cheesecarts, too! I’ve also been enjoying the rise of charcuterie platters. Is there anything more fun than nibbling?1 year ago
Sarah: @ellis, you are so totally right, and forgive me for making it sound like you need love to enjoy wine and cheese. YOU SO DON’T!!!
@julia, thanks for the book recommendation! to say my interest is piqued would be an understatement.
@dana, i agree — there is nothing better than nibbling!1 year ago
Betsy: You would love it at our house (near Napa,CA)! We get very snobby about wine and cheese here, you know. Probably has to do with all the sunshine. Come do a cheeseboard with us sometime!1 year ago
Jen: Amen sister! I never met a cheese I didn’t like. They all go so nicely with the other food groups - wine, bread, chocolate and coffee.
Thanks for the post and the pink link to Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook…I’ll be needing an extra day in the week for my blog addictions soon!1 year ago
Cordelia: Sarah! Any quote from the divine MFK Fisher is truly inspirational and I’m always beside myself whenever you reference her (POP+MFK!). My mom recently gave me her own copy of The Art of Eating and it’s so nice to see people being continually inspired by her words. So, thank you for that. And thanks for all of the new wonderful posts!1 year ago