We’ve just come back from a wonderful trip to Norway. We started off with a couple of nights in Oslo which was just so lovely. The people were incredibly friendly, the sun was shining and we got to visit a cheese shop! Then we went by train along to Flam – this takes you on the Flam railway which is an incredible line. It is only 12 miles long but during those 12 miles it has 10 stations, 20 tunnels and one bridge! We had just one night in Flam (which is more than enough time to look round the village) before heading off up the fjord by boat to Bergen. A couple of wet, drizzly nights in Bergen and we were heading back home to Heathrow.
When most people think of Norwegian cheese I would imagine that Jarlsberg and ‘that brown one’ (aka Gjetost) come to mind. However 2 years ago a Norwegian cheese was named champion at the World Cheese Awards in San Sebastian. Kraftkar is a blue cheese from Tingvollost in Nordmøre, Norway. It was voted top for its nicely developed mould, fantastic texture with crumbly soft creaminess.
The World Cheese Awards are going to be in Norway in November and we have been lucky enough to have been asked to go and help to judge the entries. We were judges in London for the awards last year and its a real privilege to be asked to go again. It was a pure coincidence that we had also booked to go on holiday to Norway this summer but it has meant that we’ve done a bit of a recce in advance! Bergen was beautiful and it will be lovely to see it again in a couple of months.
But back to life here in Pangbourne… I’m trying to introduce some new guest cheeses into the counter. I’ve made space to allow us to feature a cheese for a week or so. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to find a permanent space for any cheese which proves really popular so our customers will be directly influencing the make up of our counter. Our recent guest cheeses have included Clara (a gold winning goats’ cheese from this year’s British Cheese Awards) and Quicke’s cheddar infused with elderflower (a real taste of summer!). I’m hoping to team up with our french cheese importers to guest some french delights so keep an eye on our social media pages for more information.
There’s one more week of the school holidays to enjoy and Angela is currently away with her family. They’ve gone over the pond to visit Mickey Mouse in Orlando. She’s taken a cheese bag with her so there there will be some odd photos cropping up on our Twitter feed. I’m not sure she’ll be finding any American cheeses to try but if she does we will be sure to report back! I proposed to Ali after a spectacular American cheeseboard so we know there are some fantastic cheeses being made in the US. Unfortunately it’s just impossible for us to be able to feature them in our cheese counter so we will have to just make do with the 130 cheeses that we do have!!