I’m going on a week-long sojourn starting on Saturday: first San Fran with Julia, Meghan and Megan, and then Aspen for a couple of days with Kendrick and the whole crew – a can’t-believe-it-totally-insane surprise gift to us from Julia and her guy. I feel a little weird about traveling right now, because…well…I know how it looks to be jetting about the country in this kind of economy, and I don’t want to send the wrong message. That said, I’m very, very grateful for the chance to experience places and things that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to, and don’t get me wrong – I’m really looking forward to getting back on a snowboard (I haven’t been in about four years). I’ll also be blogging nonstop from both these locations a la my trip to London; no off-the-grid, promise 🙂

In any case, I won’t see my Dad for a few weeks, so we decided to get in some quality time at Casellula on Tuesday night.

Let’s do a little cheese reviewing, shall we? From top to bottom:

1. Petit Billy, a pasteurized goat cheese from France (served with applesauce and an apple crisp). I could eat about a pound of this stuff in one sitting, but it’s a bit bland on its own – the pairings definitely upped the taste ante.

2. Nettle Meadow Kunik, a pasteurized cow and goat cheese from New York (served with lemon curd). Oh, delicious pairing. On its own, the cheese was perfect for very mildly adventurous cheese-eaters (you know who you are), although it may disappoint those looking for some pow. It was the lemon curd that elevated it for me, giving it just the right hint of tang.

3. Stinking Bishop, a super-stinky raw cow cheese from England (served with a roasted onion). Damn, was this stinky. Sorry if this is TMI, but I actually wondered if Virgil – or a very unwashed foot – was in the house. Not that that’s bad – I actually enjoy a very stinky cheese on occasion – but I needed something to cut it a bit, and the onion just didn’t do it for me.

4. Ossau-Iraty, a raw sheep’s milk cheese from France (served with brown sugar fudge and a white-chocolate covered gooseberry). I think this may have been my favorite, just because the cheese was adventurous without being off-putting, and the pairings were so delicious that I would have ordered them on their own – screw the cheese. I think that this may have been the first time I’ve tasted a gooseberry, but I loved it – I thought it drew out and enhanced the flavor of the cheese in a mind-blowing way.

5. MitiBleu, a raw sheep’s milk cheese from Spain (served with a minted marshmallow). My father has this penchant for ordering mouth-numbing blue cheeses, and I usually push them in his direction in return for first dibs on the goat cheeses, but this one was oddly fascinating (especially paired with the just-chewy-enough-to-be-substantial minted marshmallow), and I ate more of it than he wanted me to.

As for the desserts: the Baked Alaska (bottom right) consisted of graham-cracker ice cream coated in roasted marshmallows and drenched in chocolate, and will be making a guest appearance in my dreams tonight. The Spice-Poached Pear was definitely on the savory side, but, you know, more cheese is good cheese. This dessert swam in a strongly-scented fondue and was decorated with pine nuts and caramel; a decadently appropriate ending to the evening.

Apologies for the lame iPhone photos (my camera died), but believe me: this dinner was de-lish-us.