First of all, I apologize for being MIA lately . . . I’ve been traveling and busy with moving to a new apartment — sadly, I moved two blocks further from my beloved stretch of Polk Street.
Moving on, I just discovered a wonderful new site called The Bold Italic that I wanted to share. The site publishes essays about local San Francisco discoveries that are downright wonderful; I haven’t yet found a contributor I don’t admire. Antonia Richmond’s story, The Cheese Stands Alone, about her efforts to transform from cheese enthusiast to cheesemaker was right up my alley — and will be yours, too, if you live in Russian Hill.
Antonia consulted local cheese shop Cheese Plus (2001 Polk at Pacific) for advice when she began her quest to become a fromage createur. Here’s an excerpt:
I spent a few hours observing from behind the counter, and watched as they solved a multitude of dairy dilemmas, from what to eat with specific wines to what cheese is best in fondue to what cheese would be good atop sliders.
Lucky me – I was generously fed samples of a variety of different cheeses, the most memorable being a goat raclette (served both heated and unheated, to get a feel for the difference in texture). As I wolfed it down, a pair of Japanese tourists approached me. “Excuse me,” they said. “Where is stinky?” I started to tell them that I don’t work there, but, to my surprise, I realized that I could actually help them. “At the end of the counter, to your left – that’s where you’ll find stinky.”
polk sheet 