In Search of the Cheese of the Month: September Edition

By Caroline Clough in Food on Sep 12, 2007 4:02PM

While on vacation in Tennessee this summer, Chicagoist went to multiple get-togethers that started with wine and cheese. One particular cheese caught our eyes (and more importantly our mouths) and didn't let go. This cheese was a semi-soft goat cheese. It resembled gouda in texture only creamier. It was a bit manchego-like in taste but with a clear goat's milk flavor, enhanced by a rosemary crust. It was cut either extraordinarily thin and eaten on a cracker, or thick and served on nothing at all.

We liked it so much we asked our hosts where they picked it up (we were in a rural setting where gourmet food stores simply don't exist). The answer was a surprisingly chipper "Costco!" This excited us, as we have a membership to the bulk foods warehouse, so we drove the distance (about an hour) to the local Costco to pick up our own wedge. Worth it people, worth it.

Fromartharie brand Rosey Goat Cheese (second one down), imported from Spain, is a perfect cheese for starter plates, but it can also stand up under heat. We personally used it in a cheesy scalloped potato dish that was just delicious.

The problem, hence the name of the post, is that we can't seem to find it in the Chicago area. We cannot believe that in the culinary wonderland that is Chicago this cheese can't be found and yet we've called all over the place with no success. We've called two Costcos, Pastoral, Fox & Obel, Whole Foods and, of course, our favorite place to find a new cheese of the month: The Cheese Stands Alone(here on out known as T.C.S.A) and not one of them have it. They all seem to have cow's milk manchegos with rosemary. T.C.S.A. has a sheep's cheese version, but Rosey Goat isn't even on their radar. The man we spoke to at T.C.S.A figured that Costco bought all of it and distributed it as it saw fit. We hope that perhaps you readers have come across this product in your cheese wanderings. Perhaps you can recommend a similar product. One of the things that made this cheese so good, to us, was the fact that it was specifically a goat cheese. A semi-soft goat cheese is, to our palates, more interesting and complex than the more common chevre. So the question is ... the search is for: a semi-soft goat's cheese with an herb crust (ideally rosemary but we'll deal if it's not). We'd also love to hear suggestions for next month's cheese of the month ... preferably a less elusive cheese.