Mmkay, some unusual ones tonight.
The cheese, Cimonino, is a cow's milk cheese from Italy. It comes in a wacky little Tootsie Roll package:
Inside the paper wrapper was a perforated plastic wrapper to let it breathe without sticking to the paper. Kinda cool I thought. Ok, whatever.
The cheese is a, um, moldy log:
The taste is VERY strong. This is not a beginner's cheese. It starts off creamy, but then the salt kicks in. But that's nothing compared to the spiciness and bitterness that comes in near the end and doesn't go away. I can still taste it. From my experience that heat usually comes from the rind, and when I notice it I usually remove the rind, but the diameter of this cheese is so small it can't be easily removed, other than the stripes that were already shaved off before packaging (I guess they know it's a little strong . . . ). My 4-year-old, unpredictable as always, ate a slice. I think she was attracted to the odd shape. She waved off the second slice . . .
The good news was we had a strong beer to stand up to it. The Jolly Pumpkin /Nøgne-Ø /Stone "Special Holiday Ale" is a collaboration between three great brewers from Michigan, Norway, and California. How cool is that? (Hint: very cool!)
But the cap leaves no uncertainty as to where the beer was made:
It's syrupy coming out of the bottle, with a thick foamy head:
It's sweet and strong, and has lots of flavor with oats, rye malt, chestnuts, juniper, white sage, and caraway on the ingredient list. Wow. This beer kicks booty. It stands up well to the redonkulously strong cheese. The only problem is that the bitter finish of the beer teams up with the hot/bitter finish of the cheese, and it's un-fun. I would definitely buy the beer again; the cheese kinda sucked, although it would be a challenge to find something that pairs well with it. I can see how some people would dig it though.
