01 April 2011

You know what they say about the Dutch....

Welcome back fromage-o-philes from around the world! We at Fromage-du-Mois have been on a more than one-year hiatus and are eager to get back to blogging about the delights of cheese. We hope that everyone has been tasting away, as we have. Let's get right back in to it... There is a an excellent, semi-hard, flaky cheese that hails from the Netherlands that is worth a couple of sentences here in this comeback post. (See above picture- courtesy of threemealsaday.com). It is called Robusto and it is a Gouda-like cheese, both in texture and flavor. It has a bit of that great sweet-and-saltiness of a Gruyere as well. The taste itself is a bit sharp on first bite, but fairly simple taken all-together. It starts with that moderate amount of sharpness, then becomes salty-buttery, and finally has a full, nutty finish. Robusto does not overwhelm or have the favlor complexity of other Dutch stalwarts (and U.S. import rarities), like Limburger or Leyden. I think it has just enough sharpness and the right amount of meat to make it a great cheese. Robusto is a solid addition to any platter or part of a wine and cheese tasting. Although some might recommend a full-bodied red wine to accompany Robusto, I like this cheese with a bit of a lighter load, perhaps with something like a Burgundy or Beaujolais. One of my favorite things about this cheese is it's availability, at least where I live in Boston. I have found Robusto readily available and frequently promoted at all the Whole Foods Stores in this are. I have also seen it at many pf the local fromageries. How about near you? And now, you might be wondering what 'they say about the Dutch'. Well, I think I'll have to leave that up to our favorite, irrascible villain from the 3rd film of the Austin Powers series: Johann van der smut (aka Goldmember, 2002).