More Cheese, Gromit?

Christmas time in Great Britain seems to bring about an abundance of...you guessed it....cheese! I've told you already about my lucky discovery of cheap cheese here, and my foray into varieties that were unbeknownst to me until recently.  One type of cheese that I've been eye-balling at Tesco but haven't had the occasion to try is Wensleydale. It comes plain usually but during the holidays, you can get rounds stuffed with various dried fruits including apricot or cranberry (they seem to enjoy stuffing lots of things with dried fruit here...cakes, breads, cheese...)

I never actually knew this, but Wensleydale is the cheese most often associated with Wallace and Gromit (if you don't know what I'm talking about, shame on you.) Sales of the cheese had fallen so low in the 90's, that the animated show mentioned the cheese on a variety of occasions and actually ended up saving the company. Now some rounds of the cheese even feature the characters faces on them, as a thank you. You can read more about the cheese and Wallace and Gromit here. Its a mild cheese, with a crumbly texture, and a bit of an acidic taste to it.

Having spent all day being very productive, doing research at a local trend forecasting company called The Designer Forum, I was getting peckish by the time I reached Tesco to pick up some essentials. Wanting something other than mini pork pies and sausage rolls (insert me rolling my eyes at the amount of pastry and mixed meat substances this country consumes here), I decided to pick up a little multigrain baguette and experiment with a new cheese. I chose the cranberry type and sat in the Victoria Centre mall while it closed (at 5:30 pm....what slackers) and munched on my bread and cheese, feeling as though I should have bought an individual sized bottle of wine to top it off.

I've had a chance to try a few of their basics now, including Red Leicester and Double Gloucester, which are pretty standard and taste fairly similar to Canadian orange cheddar and mature white cheddar, respectively, but I'm thoroughly enjoying having the chance to try new ones!