Cheese Tasting!

First, I'll tell you a little bit about the farmer's market.  Lyon-Vaise has a farmer's market every Wednesday and Saturday (and perhaps Sunday? not sure) morning.  The market has many different farmers who bring all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and there are people with meat, bread, and even food such as olives and cheese.  The deals at the market are usually really good too; a few weeks ago I was able to get half a kilo of olives (a little more than a pound) for only 2 euros.  If you can't envision what a half kilo is, it's probably the amount you would get in three regular-sized jars of olives in the grocery store.

Small photo of a bit of the Vaise market



 

As you can sort of tell from the photo, there are lots of trucks around and then tables with umbrellas over it.  Unfortunately, the last few market days were fairly rainy so I didn't want to stand outside and snap a lot of photos.  Hopefully there will be a nice day soon where I can do that!  Especially on the Wednesday market- they often sell a variety of quite interesting things from clothes, to shoes and purses, to dishes, to household supplies, even matresses- basically anything you can think of wanting to buy, you can purchase at the Wednesday morning farmer's market.

 

Last night, I went to a cheese tasting at a fromagerie (cheese store) in Masséna, Lyon.  I really thought I was a cheese fan, but I can honestly say that out of the seven or eight cheese that I tried, I really only liked the first one, which was still probably not one of my favorite cheeses ever.  All of the cheeses were VERY strong.  The cheeses that I remember having tried were a certain variety of brie, roquefort, and Saint Marcellin.  Saint Marcellin is the cheese of Lyon, and it's a type of goat's cheese.  I was convinced that I liked goat cheese until I tasted the goat cheeses at the cheese tasting and now I am not sure if I am a fan!  haha.  We also had some cheese that was made from ewe's milk. 

 

While I did not particularly enjoy the cheeses there, it was definitely really interesting and educational to try some cheeses that I would not usually eat.  In fact, apparently the cheeses we tasted we would never be able to try in the United States, because none of them were pasturized and almost all cheese (over 99%) in the US is.  (Which, they claim, takes all the flavor out of the cheese.  That's probably why I thought all these other cheeses were too strong.)  It was also interesting to learn that certain cheeses taste better with certain types of bread.  We had classic French baguette, a type of French "cornbread", and a French nut-wheat type bread there to try with the cheeses, depending on which flavor of bread would best enhance the cheese flavor.  All in all, it was definitely an interesting evening!

 

The group of us who went to the fromagerie!