The Cheeses of my Sister

~ Menu ~

The cheeses of my sister

Pain au Levain

Aloe Tree Shiraz

Lindt Sea Salt Chocky

As expected we spent the last few days in Mersea Island, off the Essex coast near Colchester, visiting my family. 

They have a lovely café there called The Art Café  where my sister, my niece and their staff make lovely food - home-made cakes, breakfasts (fried and otherwise including great cinnamon toast) and interesting lunch dishes.  

My brother-in-law, James Weaver, a talented artist, born and bred on Mersea sells his work, the work of other artists and makes wonderful coffees.

Looking out the window of West Mersea Art Café

(I stole this lovely picture from their blog, The Artist and the Tartist – I hope they won’t mind)

They also run an interesting food shop next door-ish called The Cake Hole. The other night we sampled a range of cheeses from said shop and, just to check, I sampled them again today for lunch, to see if they travel well. They do.

The board comprised ...

~ Milleens – this is an Irish cheese which I had heard was pungent and I was a little nervous, in the way that one is when offered a Stinking Bishop but whilst vigorous and tangy it is really rather good.

~ Keen’s Cheddar – “cheddared by hand” and utterly delicious.

~ Norfolk Dapple – a Cheddar-ish sort of chap with just a hint of other things!

~ Mrs. Temple’s Binham Blue – a lovely cheese, soft and creamy with a good blue taste.

~ Comtē – more correctly called Gruyère de Comtē, sweet, nutty, French and traditional.

~ A lovely lightly smoked crumbly item the name of which escapes me – Good-something, I think. Anyone got any ideas please leave a comment. In fact, treat yourself – leave a comment anyway!

The bread was from Waitrose. We don’t have one anywhere near us in Cornwall (nor in the BVI funnily enough) so a browse in one of their stores is always a pleasure for me. The Colchester branch was not the best one I’ve been in but still worth a visit. I think there is one in the Toon so I’m looking forward to that. Anyhoo the bread was very good which is the point.

The wine is one I hadn’t heard of; Aloe Tree Shiraz. It is not a gently mellow thing like a Merlot but a rich delicious wine that said to me, mind you I’m no expert, “I’M A RED WINE!” (Writing that reminds me of a wine tasting piss-take on the telly years ago when a "expert" likened a wine’s taste to that of a newt on holiday in Tangiers. Tee hee.)

For dessert, knowing how much I like Lindt Excellence Chilli Chocolate (nothing gets past me, you know), I treated myself to their Sea Salt version and very pleasant it was too; not salty in itself just with a happy crunchy hit of salt occasionally, amongst the rich dark chocky. I hope to get my hands on a bar of Marmite chocolate sometime – I wonder what that’s like. (News from the future - I did get to try Marmite's Very Peculiar Chocolate - read more here.)

So anyway that was a good lunch, as they often are.

We are Up North now and the weather is freezing but I am lovely and warm here in my father in law’s home with the aroma of my steak and red wine casserole wafting about.

Keep warm everyone.