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Was this year's Seattle Cheese Festival a little smaller than usual? Or has our appetite for free cheese cubes grown exponentially over the last four years? Whatever the case, the 2008 Cheese Fest was in full effect. We went Sunday, assuming that the temps on Saturday made for a whole lot of gooey, melty cheese, not that there's anything wrong with that. Sure, there were plenty of people at the Market, but we know how to deal with crowds (after all, we are from a City): You don't stand in a proper line, like a good, patient, uptight Seattleite. No, you dart through the crowd, you duck in and out of line to get your cheese samples, you are stealthy like ninja. That was our experience at least. For the fourth year in a row, we happily ate ourselves sick on cheese--as God intended. We asked the rest of Seattlest about their time at this year's Cheese Festival.
David: A friend of mine brought some blue cheese over to a BBQ last night. It was the best food I have ever had in my life.
Ronald: Clusterfuck. Couldn't get close; felt like Puyallup without the farm animals, not worth the wait. I know, it's no excuse. Instead, stayed on First and had lunch at Le Pichet: salade verte, tartine with goat cheese, Muscadet. Felt like Paris.
MVB: I was gonna go, but then I got heat stroke. Heat stroke! Who gets that? I'm ashamed to be a native Californian.
Katelyn: Had the happiest day of spring thus far down there--gorgeous sunshine, not too hot, was able to sample all the cheeses I wanted and had some good conversation with the cheesemongers. Lots of kids running around, which made me feel a little guilty for wearing a shirt that said "fuck" on it. Bought twelve kinds of cheese between the three of us who went down there, and ten different samples of wine, left at 1pm happily tipsy and spent the rest of the afternoon in our backyard drinking more wine and eating cheese. The joy in my heart was totally worth the stomachache!
Jay: Too crowded for me. I went to a seminar after sampling from a few tables.
Donte: I kept asking people if the Cheese Fest was fun. I went, and now I know that not only was I correct in summing myself up as "not a cheese person," but my suspicions over the unfunness of the Cheese Fest was confirmed. There's a reason I don't go to the market (or rather thousands and thousands of them), which was only compounded by the prospect of free cheese.
James: We were there right around noon. Is it my imagination, or was the festival smaller this year than last? Fewer vendors? (I missed Neals' Yard, if they were there.) On the plus side, a two-and-a-half-year-old really enjoys the concept of a festival dedicated to samples.
After the jump, a recipe for mac 'n' cheese (demoed at the cheese festival yesterday) that contains over one pound of dairy per serving.
FIVE-CHEESE MACARONI
Serves 4
1 pound fusilli bucati, cooked for half of recommended time
1 pound unsalted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
8 cups whole milk
½ pound Provolone, coarsely grated
½ pound Asiago Fresco, coarsely grated
½ pound Fontina Val D'Aosta, coarsely grated
¼ pound Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
¼ pound Mountain Gorgonzola, cut into ½-inch cubes
½ cup fresh bread crumbs
½ medium yellow onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Nutmeg
Hot sauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook pasta to half the time suggested on the box. Meanwhile, heat milk in another pan over low heat.
In a skillet, melt 1 stick of the butter. Add the bread crumbs, stir and transfer to a bowl and set aside. In the same pan, melt 1 stick of butter. Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Transfer the onions into a food processor and process until smooth. Add the puree into the milk.
Melt remaining butter in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk until combined. Add the milk mixture slowly. Whisk until the mixture has thickened. Add Provolone, Asiago and Fontina. Stir until melted. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. If desired, add nutmeg and hot sauce to taste.
Combine cheese sauce and pasta in a baking dish. Cover with Parmigiano and Gorgonzola cubes. Top with breadcrumbs. Bake until the top is golden and bubbly, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Recipe by Meghan Boyle, DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine
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That Mountain Gorgonzola is delicious.
Did anyone get a recipe for the winning cheese sandwich? And MVB, don't feel bad about the heat stroke. You definitely weren't the only one. (Though in my case it was helped along by a mild hangover.)
Hey Simonian, the other chef demo recipes, including the winning recipe for the Grilled Cheese Contest, should be posted soon on the cheese festival website. I’ll provide the link once it's up.
I was surprised there weren't more cheese makers out and the event was less bustling that it was the year prior. However, with it being late in the day and over 80 degrees, I shouldn't have been that surprised. We had a few samplings and then decided a mojito was just the thing we needed.
-Curls
drunkinseattle.blogspot.com
Thanks Audrey.