I discovered a new cheese store - Les Amis du Fromage

Have I mentioned yet how much I love cheese? It’s my weakness – not chocolate, or cake, or ice cream – it’s cheese. It’s a tough call, but if I had to give up coffee or cheese, I’d have to go with coffee. (There’s always tea after all.) Last week, we tried a really wonderful raw milk cheese from Quebec at Salt (which will at some point get its own well deserved post). When we asked if there might be any place we could buy some for ourselves, the server suggested Granville Island or a cheese shop I’d never heard of, and promptly forgot the name of. (I have a horrible memory for names.) But my memory was jogged while watching an episode of “Living Vancouver” on CBC where they did a segment on entertaining with cheese featuring Allison Spurrell of Les Amis du Fromage (www.buycheese.com). Looks like I’m the only person in Vancouver who’s never been there! So yesterday I hopped on my bike and went in search of the 2^nd Ave. store to rectify this.

I found it. Valhalla for a cheese-lover like me. (OK, so I’m not a warrior gloriously slain in battle, but you get what I mean.) They didn’t have the cheese I was looking for, but I had expected that. (The server at Salt said it was very unlikely we would be able to find it here.) So I bought two others, a cheddar with Isle of Aran whisky, and Bouq ‘Emissaire, a raw goat’s milk cheese from Quebec (which Salt was also serving when we were there last). Chris likes cheddars more than I do, and I like goat cheese more than he does. The obvious solution – one of each. We had some of the cheddar last night. It was surprisingly mild. A little sweet actually. One of the cheddars I’ve most liked in recent memory. Importantly, the cheddar fan liked it too. We haven’t tried the BE yet, but I’ll write that up when we do. I also bought a wild boar terrine with apricots, which we also tried that last night. I would definitely recommend that for your next party. Tasty! I’ll be back.

As you might imagine, we didn’t eat the cheese and terrine alone, they were accompaniments to a bottle of Poplar Grove (www.poplargrove.ca) The Legacy (2004), not because we necessarily thought it would go, but because it was already open. For just sipping, I definitely liked their Merlot better. But The Legacy was definitely food-friendly. It had good acid and tannins. More structure than the Merlot. Could easily have been left to sit for a few more years, and even improved a little with the time. The take home: for drinking, pick up the Merlot, for a dinner wine, go with The Legacy’s a great choice.