How about cheese for desert?

Many years ago on a trip to France I had my first real taste of cheese, I was instantly hooked. When I got home, I tried to find some, I was crushed. What I discovered is that it is very hard to find good cheese in this country (not so true if you live in Berkley near the “Cheese Board”, San Francisco near “Cheese Plus”, or near a Whole Foods, or Bread and Circus). By the way, if you happen to be passing through San Francisco on your way to any picnic, stop in at Cheese Plus and pickup your goodies, they have great selection of cheeses, meats and other goodies. Located at the corner of Polk & Pacific just a block off of Van Ness, it is an easy stop if you are passing through. Say hi to Ray, and tell him Lisa and I sent you.

Once I managed to find a good cheese shop, the next thing I discovered it that there are about a million types of cheese. Here are three of my favorites;

St. André is a soft-ripened, triple-cream cheese. Made with equal parts of thick, sour cream and whipped sweet cream. St. André is also fairly rare (you won’t find it at Safeway). It is 75% butterfat and is my favorite Brie/Camembert.

Point Reyes Blue, made from raw milk from a special herd of Holstein cows that graze on the hills overlooking Tomales Bay in northern California. Rrom a classic blue cheese recipe that has evolved over the years, to produce a creamier style, full-flavored blue cheese.

Saint Agur, from the blue-cheese making Auvergne region of central France, offers the perfect balance of a rich blue taste and a smooth, creamy texture. Doing research about this cheese I discovered that it is produced by the French dairy giant Bongrain. I had thought that this was one of those small produced in someones basement kind of cheese, but it is mass produced and is fairly easy to find.