Get Your Cheese On!

Seattlest loves cheese. And not just one cheese in particular---cow, goat, sheep---we love it all. We'd eat cheese from camel or llama or yak's milk if we could get our hands on some. Moreover, we like our cheeses nice and complex: the more aged, the creamier, the stinkier, the sharper, the better.

So of course, we were beyond excited when we heard about the Seattle Cheese Festival taking place this weekend at Pike Place Market, presented by DeLaurenti Specialty Food and Wine. The two-day fest is geared towards hardcore cheese enthusiasts and food service industry employees, as well as members of the general public who just want to spend a lovely Saturday or Sunday afternoon sampling dozens of cheeses, watching cooking demonstrations by some of Seattle's best chefs, and learning about how to better incorporate dairy into one's life. For those who wish to really get chedd-ucated, there's cheese education seminars being held at the Top of the Market, though they look to be already sold out. As much as we love cheese, we don't feel like we're missing much by not being able to attend the debate over pasteurized vs. non-pasteurized milk.

On top of all that cheese, starting at noon both days, DeLaurenti is hosting a wine tasting, featuring libations from scads of local wineries. The wines are, of course, well-suited for consumption with cheese. While the Cheese Festival itself is free, the wine tasting is $5, which (a) is cheap, and (b) goes towards The Market Foundation, so it's win-win as far as Seattlest is concerned. We fully plan on gorging ourselves senseless.

The Seattle Cheese Festival runs 10am-5pm this Saturday and Sunday.
For hours and locations of festival events, check out the event guide.