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’Net Junkie Shawn "Speedy" Lopes |
Cheesiness is the
rule hereAt the risk of being perceived as snooty or "uptown," I will admit to having recently developed a taste for gourmet cheese. You know, the kind you find in wine shops and the deli sections of your local supermarket. Now, I'm obviously no expert, because I can't tell you how this whole wine-and-cheese thing got started. In fact, I'm much more of a beer and pizza kind of guy, and in lieu of fancy deli crackers, I'll usually have a few slices of cheese with Wheat Thins.
But as embarrassing as it is for this Kalihi homeboy to admit it, I do know my fontina from my gouda and manchego from brie. How did this shocking development happen, you ask? Two reasons, really: curiosity and hunger. I'd always wondered how deli departments of supermarkets were able to support their grand cheese sections, filled with fancy, overpriced cheeses, when I'd never met anyone in my life who'd actually bought a serving of gruyere or camembert. So one day, on an empty stomach, I purchased a block of havarti from Safeway.
Now I'm scouring the Web for info on what I'm actually ingesting. For the aspiring cheesehead like myself, Cheesenet. info seems a good place to start. Cheesenet has been a prominent cheese information resource on the 'Net since 1995, offering an educational World Cheese Index, which features the goods on a wide variety of cheese types. You'll find info on their fat content, wine partners and details on the cheesemaking process.
Also unique to Cheesenet is its Ask Dr. Cheese feature, which endeavors to answer queries from the site's many curious visitors. There's even a Poetry and Prose section with dozens of submitted writings from cheese fans across the globe ("Fruit of the Cow" is particularly poignant, I must say); links pointing visitors to vendors, newsgroups and other informational sites; a cheese glossary; some background on basic cheesemaking; a history of cheese; and a CheeseBoard offering general cheese news and recipes; and a Cheese Freekz forum to let the cheese fanatics sound off. "Cheesy," in the case of this Web site, is a compliment more than anything.
Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.
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’Net Junkie drops every Monday.
Contact Shawn "Speedy" Lopes at slopes@starbulletin.com.
