Cheddar Cheese / Cheddar Käse

I like cheese. Bleu cheese is great on salads, fresh parmesan on pasta, pepperjack and brie and havarti with dill on crackers. Feta is good on just about anything at anytime. Cheddar has always been a staple, and one that I have taken for granted, before now. I prefer white cheddar (why does it need to be dyed orange?), and sharper is better to me. I've got no favorite brand, buying Cheddar usually by whatever is on sale - and some kind of Cheddar always seems to be on sale.

Sadly, Cheddar cheese is not available in the grocery stores here, not even by a translated name. There are plenty of cheeses here in Austria: many familiar imports like feta, camembert, and fresh mozzarella, and many unfamiliar homegrown varieties. The most common and inexpensive cheese, which comes in pre-sliced packs or in big blocks, is Gouda. Gouda is a tasty, mild and somewhat sweet cheese that I like very much. It is great for snacks and good in sandwiches, and back in New Jersey we sometimes bought Gouda, in its smallish rounded wax packaging, as a special treat.

I've come to miss that old homey taste of Cheddar cheese though, and so when we discovered a source of it here in Salzburg, I had to go check it out. Nikolas and I found The English Shop this weekend. From the window outside, it looks like a store that sells bone china tea sets and British soccer jerseys. Inside there is a small selection of ordinary English biscuits and chocolates and teas, along with those tea sets and soccer jerseys. And in a narrow refrigerator by the cash register, there is Cheddar cheese. Far above any price I would ever pay for Cheddar cheese in New Jersey, on sale or not, it is totally worth the splurge to have a little Cheddar cheese again!