Monday, August 11, 2008

Stilton with Mango and Ginger & Vinho Verde!

I am always weary of avid wine and cheese connoisseurs for their excessive use of metaphors and obscure adjectives, but was inspired to be a cheese and wine evangelist for a brief moment when I had Stilton cheese with Mango and Ginger for the first time yesterday, as well as some Vinho Verde a.k.a. "green" wine at a Portuguese restaurant for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Being the offspring of two chefs, I am admittedly somewhat of a food snob, but never really ventured into wine and cheese territory, as my real or imagined allergy to alcohol (chronicled here) has prevented me from drinking much, and my like for cheese has been limited to the very bland (pepperjack, mozzarella, cheddar, and brie come to mind, although I don't mind feta and Parmesan in small amounts). Therefore, I was surprised/horrified to learn that Stilton is well known for their blue cheeses, as that is one of few things that I am not jumping to stomach. Upon further reading, I learned that the mango and ginger cheese is a White Stilton, meaning that it doesn't have the blue mold that is characteristic of the blue cheeses, so I guess it doesn't really count as me eating blue cheese. Whew. Either way, I have to say that the Mango and Ginger is not anything I've ever tasted before - it was sweet, and really creamy - a bit like cream cheese but a hundred times better so I am not doing it justice. It also had big chunks of mango in it - yum! Not as exciting, but still good was the Vinho Verde; it was sweet, but also had a kick to it that was almost like carbonation. It reminded me a bit of Riesling, which most restaurants don't seem to carry very much. It didn't exactly go with my chicken gizzard appetizer, but that's a whole other story! Anyway, it's worth a try, even for the unadventurous palate.

2 comments:

Teresa said...

Wow, that sounds delicious! You're making me hungry :)

Ty'sMommy said...

That sounds fabulous! I love a good stilton, although to be honest, I do lean toward to blue cheeses. I would definitely try this one, though!