I was a little saddened to discover the lack of decent cheese in Estonia.
But, hey - I was moving to France. They’re mad about cheese there, I thought cheerfully, there will be loads of cheddar-like varieties to choose from. But no. A significant portion of Friday’s visit to my local supermarket was spent anxiously perusing the selection in the cheese aisle. I mean, honestly. 3.2 million types of cheese, and nothing even remotely resembling a block of mature cheddar. Surely this cannot be right?
Soft cheese, cream cheese, holey cheese, white cheese, orange cheese, flavoured cheese. Cheese with bits of fruit in it, cheese with a selection of crackers, cheese that smells really bad. Mild cheese, blue cheese, sliced cheese, spreadable cheese, blocks of cheese, tubs of cheese, balls of cheese, wedges of cheese, stringy cheese, smoked cheese, crumbly cheese. Every type of cheese imaginable, and more cheese on top of that. But no cheddar equivalent. Pity about that, France.
And while I’m on the subject of absent foods, why, oh why are there no bagels anywhere? This is most distressing to me, as someone who is particularly partial to a sesame bagel with cream cheese, or an onion and poppyseed bagel with scrambled eggs. Thorough searches of several supermarkets in Tallinn, one in Helsinki, and three in Lyon have revealed that I have clearly been taking too many things for granted.
On the plus side, though, I can’t help but feel that French crème fraîche, coffee, and croissants are, in their own special ways, kind of making up for the distressing lack of cheddar cheese and bagels. Mmm-mmm-mmm…
Filed under: Estonia, French, Lyon, bagels, cheese, coffee, complaining, sad, strange
Cheddar may be found at your local Monoprix… that’s where I go when I need a fix.
And I was pretty distressed about the lack of bagels the first time I moved to France. This time it hasn’t been so bad, maybe because I knew it was coming.
Oh Hails, Port Salut is not a bad equivalent since that’s what I had for lunch today. Best lunch is French bread, cheese and salami! Only 2 more days until I got the French feeling, yeh!! Seems no direct train route between Nice and Lyon, came back with 2 many changes. Sad about that as I would love to meet up with you.
ok been told of sorry to all cheese lovers, Port Salut I know is nothing remotely like cheddar, just trying to show you that really it’s not that bad. Could be worse you could be in Ballymena having cheddar cheese and bageks Hails!
croquecamille - can’t you start a campaign or something? You’re in the industry, you must have some contacts…
MonkeyMrs - Port Salut is indeed what I’ve been having with my French bread. I can’t deny that it is pretty fine - and also a much better option than the one you mention!