Love that cheese.

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I have been known to mock the French.  Cheese eating surrender monkeys, I... think was the favored term.  I am... in part... French.  But, in truth, I am as French as I am Spanish, Lakota, and Dine... not dine, but more like "da neh", or "de ney".  Or Sioux and Navajo, in common parlance.  Well, it's in the blood, and that means more than I once would have thought.

Anyway, so... cheese eating surrender monkeys?  Aye.  And... there is some truth to it.  If too, reasons for those truths.

First?  They fought two world wars, losing half their best men in each.  So... not wishing to fight only makes sense.  Seriously, if all you get out of wars you are all but set up to lose is death and misery, destruction and loss?  Yea.

Oh, the stuff is also keto friendly, to a degree carnivore friendly... if some dairy is allowed.  Or... so I have it.  High in fat, no carbs, some protein probably?  Check.  My favored aged gouda is about 120 calories an ounce, 75% from fat, with 10 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein, and no carbohydrates.  Almost a perfect keto food.  Although, eat too much of any cheese, and... yeah... blockages and hard poop sessions.  Add salami to double that affect.  Kefir can be your friend... if mine would just ferment a bit faster!  Ugh.

As for the cheese?  I'm learning to love that stuff.  Even getting into some of the stinky cheeses, lightly so far.  But, yes, cheese, once you get a taste for it, is almost an addiction.

How to afford it?  Rarely, in small portions.  I can make 7.5 ounces of cheese, which seems to be the typical size for personal possesion and use.  :p  Anyway, you, or I, can make that last seven meals?  Well, not exactly.  I usually have two or three cheeses at a time, using about an ounce, to an ounce and an half per meal.  Still, that's around twenty to thirty dollars in various cheeses, lasting... say... seven meals.  Right.  Though sometimes I throw in salami.  Even so, I can do it rather affordably.  If I am eating small meals.

I even share small amounts with Sassy.  She will eat a tiny cube, maybe two, but that is it.  Won't touch salami, or the kind I have this time.  Sharing something, to me, which is so precious... is a true gift.  I don't usually share it with humans, no taste for the stuff.

The only thing about truly gormet cheeses?  Even if they don't, themselves, smell?  Or seem to?  They sure put a stink on the hands.  I was wondering why my hands were smelling like... I had been itching my bottom.  I knew I hadn't.  Kept washing, and washing, and washing.  Then, figured it out.  Cheese.  Just... cheese.

One of the cheeses, in particular, but all of the older cheeses, 18 to 36 month old stuff, and some younger, really leaves a rather distinct odor.  Thankfully they don't taste like what they smell.

The one, this time, which is the worst affender, is sort of a aged brie cheese.  It is made to a still soft, but solid, type of cheese.  It has the texture of American cheese, only is a real cheese.  But, that scent?  Wow.  As to flavor, it is a bit tight even for me.  But I am working on it.  Finally have brie and it's type down.  But aging that really adds some... bite.

Even so, I won't really appologize to the French.  I will, meley, to a degree, begin to agree with some of their sentiments.  At the least understand.  A war ravaged people have a right to... consider no longer playing stupid games... winning stupid prizes.  Ah, but the cheese, that is no stupid prize.  That... is a true little joy.  And they are good at it.  As are many in Euorpe.  Americans just don't have the patience, haven't known the depths of the poverty which lead to that, among other things.

It's like the Emperor of Japan, who eats very... ripe... fish.  Salt aged for at least half a decade.  I think it is a bit of humility, but too, a means of being able to eat what others wouldn't, in order to survive, if needed?  I think it was more than it seems.  It isn't all the emperor without clothes scenarios.  Sometimes there is wisdom to it.  Cheese is a similar product, only using dairy insteas of fish.  Italians do it with meats.  Umami is both a survival skill, a way of preserving what is dear when available for when it isn't, and culinary humility... or... maybes.

I haven't mastered the fish, let alone even caviar.  There is some less expensive caviar, if most of it is very expensive compared to most other foods.  I... keep trying... every few years.  Just, because, I know how very good it is for a body, and how little is needed for that nutrition to be fruitful.  Still, I... try.  Maybe someday.  At least with the caviar.  Could never afford the salted aged fish.  That is... extremely expensive.  Well over the most expensive (at least legally available) caviar.

Cheers?