Day 128: Cheesy

Today, at the grocery store, I ran across a cheese I'd never heard of. Beemster Dutch cheese. It didn't tell me what variety, really--just "Dutch"--and it was yellow and firm and it looked like a good shot at something I'd never had before. So I bought it, brought it home, and ate some.

It's a waxy cheese, not the most pleasant taste but not the worst either, something part stinky part bland. It had a flaky texture to it, pulling apart with the kind of flakes you find in fish, and at times it was vaguely (very vaguely) reminiscent of parmesan. But I couldn't pinpoint what variety of cheese it was. When I looked up "Dutch cheese" online, the first definition I found was cottage cheese, which definitely wasn't right. And then, after going to the Beemster website and finding no indication, I discovered some help at about.com, which told me the most popular Dutch cheese was gouda, and that a popular manufacturer of said cheese was Beemster.

I've only ever had smoked gouda, that I can recall, and I like it, but mostly for its smoky flavor. This was not smoked. Nor white and soft like the gouda I remember. Instead, it was yellow and firm. An interesting experience, but not necessarily the cheese I'm going to pick up for my next cheese plate. Especially since I still don't feel confident in what kind of cheese it really was.

Today's fruit: pineapple and coconut (frozen pineapple, coconut milk, and pineapple juice blended into a smoothie--another combo I've never had before--yum!)