Cheesoscope of the Month: Taurus

Taurus (April 21 - May 21): You need order, security and self-assurance. You generally maintain very secure and stable relationships, but that may be because you're wary of change—you try to avoid chaos and indecision at all costs. Loosen up, dude. You don't like taking too many risks, so your best bet is a versatile, mild, run-of-the-mill cheese, like cheddar, which won't send you into a tizzy at first bite.

Hey, hey, Reypenaer

Hello, best cheese I've ever had in my life.

Let's revisit my March trip to Amsterdam so I may introduce to you this spectacular dairy delight:

Reypenaer (yea, I don't know how to pronounce it either), a sharp Dutch cheese similar in texture to Parmesan that's a bit nutty and gritty (like me) and that only gets better and tangier with age (also like me!). Emmy + Reypenaer = soulmatez 4eva.

Upon climbing out of the hash cloud encapsulating the city, I was motived to do further research about this indulgent wonder, only to find that it won the prize of Supreme Champion of the International Nantwich Cheese Show in the UK last year. Cool! It also snagged previous victories in 2007 and 2005.

I was lucky enough to sample Reypenaer in its various aged states at a lovely little cheese shop with a knack for presentation skills and a very friendly and knowledgeable staff. Check out Le Guillotin, a handy cutting board with a knife that can be adjusted with a clamp as to provide the cheese width you desire with ease. These quaint devices were also sold at the shop, and were so fun to use that, coupled with my innate human garbage-disposal abilities, I ended up nearly clearing the shop of their sampling cheeses.

Cheesoscope of the Month: Aries

Aries (March 21-April 20): Your energy and passion for everything you do has always resulted in grand achievements, especially at work. Your busy, pioneering nature may often lead to careless accidents in the form of cuts and bruises, so use caution when handling fire and metal objects. Opt for anything that doesn't involve wielding a knife—like string cheese or Babybel. Or, why not try your hand at making your own cheese, you entrepreneur, you?

going Dutch

Many apologies for the hiatus in posting, but I was traveling for a bit over the past few weeks. Not to worry, though - my cheesy mission did not go uninterrupted!

After a three-city tour through Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen, I discovered that hands down, the Dutch do cheese best. Could it have been the drug-induced haze that simply made their dairy delights taste like the most wondrous things on earth? Regardless of whether the sensory experience was heightened by THC or not, all I know is, shit was mad tasty.

One prime example was a 2-euro brick of young cheese made with mustard seeds (!), pictured above - "mostard kaas." This mild Dutch cheese was quite a treat, to say the least, with it's subtle mustardy flavor that was neither overkill nor went undetected. So much of a treat, in fact, that after a morning wake-up call at The Bulldog, three of us finished off the entire block of cheese within a mere six hours. (Thanks, space cakes!)

We got the cheese at Amsterdam's busiest outdoor market, which also sold other foods for ridiculously cheap prices (like a bag of goji berries for a mere 3 euros!).