Cheese No. 5

Today's lunch: Goat feta, smoked tofu, Ryvita, Gala apple, bread

Without further delay, allow me to introduce the cheese I have been chipping away at for the last ten days:

Goat Feta (22% M.F.), Woolwich Dairy (Orangeville, ON), $need to check the fridge

Definitely one of the most flavourful cheeses I have tried this year, though I've been mostly eating it "straight" with crackers and bread since the vegetable ingredients needed for greek salad are terribly out of season. As far as fetas go, this one by Canada's leading goat's milk cheese producer (motto: "We've Got Your Goat") is not at all crumbly and has a real strong (tangy?) goat-y taste to it, not too salty either. Also, for strict vegetarians, you'll be happy to learn that it's rennet-free.

However, like Jarlsberg, the history of feta may be more interesting than its taste.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, I learned that feta is one of the oldest cheeses in the world and the traditional way to make this cheese is to use exclusively goat's milk or sheep's milk -- cow's milk feta is viewed as "non-authentic" by purists and Greeks (more on them below). The cheese is formed into blocks which are salted, and, traditionally, served sliced, which is where the cheese gets its name: "fetta" means "slice in Italian.

Of course, being a cheese with European origins, Feta has been embroiled in the whole "regional foodstuffs" debate. So in the same way that Champagne can only be use to describe sparkling wine from a particular region in France, Feta is a protected designation of origin cheese, meaning that, within the European Union, the name "feta" can only be used for the Greek stuff - not that similar stuff made by the Danes (aka, The Cheese Formerly Known as Feta Until We Lost a Lengthy Legal Battle). Apparently in Canada, we only respect PDO names when it comes to wine and spirits, which is why it's okay for the Woolwich Dairy to label their product as "feta."

When I started doing further research, I discovered there's a whole website devoted to the promotion of Greek feta, complete with A CHEESE VIDEOGAME called Feta Invaders. Very cool, even if it is just a marketing tool to get young people more interested in the cheese.

Bonus info: on the Woolwich Dairy website, I learned that the foods that pair nicely with goat cheese are: figs, pears, grapes, and apples, and Pinot Noir should be your wine choice.

PS - I'm actually not doing that bad if we're only 3 weeks into January and I'm already on my fifth cheese of the month.