Fiscalini Cloth Bound Cheddar

This bandage wrapped raw milk cheddar comes to us from Modesta, California. Mariano Gonzalez, a world-renowned cheese maker, winner of many awards including “the outstanding cheese of the year” and five times “the Best Farmhouse cheese in North America” as voted by the American Cheese Society, is now the senior cheese maker at Fiscalini Cheese.

He handcrafts and inspects every 60 pound wheel of Fiscalini Farms' bandage-wrapped raw-milk cheddar. It is quite rare for an English-style farmhouse cheddar like Fiscalini's to be produced in the U.S. Only All Natural materials and processes are used when Gonzales makes Fiscalini Cheddar. Using Fiscalini's own milk and aged for 18 months on the property, Fiscalini Cheddar cheese was voted "Best Farmhouse Cheese" at the 2002 American Cheese Society Awards in Washington D.C. Fiscalini Cheddar Cheese is a wonderful example of the success of the artisan cheese movement in the U.S. today. Rich, buttery and sharp, Fiscalini Farmstead Cheddar is a world-class cheese.

Now available at both locations - $6.99 per 100 grams

Hastings Update

Floor poured: Check...

The cement guys were working late last night putting in a new layer of concrete over the existing floor. Hats off to them and their 12-14 hour day. Give it a couple of days to set, and we can seal it.

It's nice and bright inside as we get so much natural daylight inside, and that doesn't account for the two big skylights that are blocked out for now. One skylight will be right over the kitchen (left side), with another one sitting over the cheese cutting area (right side). The front windows are almost floor to celing.

Fenocchio Renato Olive Oil

We just received a small amount of extra virgin cold pressed olive oil from Italian wine producer Fenocchio Renato. There were only 1000 bottles of this oil produced. This oil is a Farmstead Wines selection.

Renato has been cellar master in a major estate in Barbaresco until 1993 when together with his wife Milva, they decided to take care of the family vineyards and start bottling their own wines. The first vintage was 2000. Renato and Milva Fenocchio spend much of their time in the vineyards. The estate has about 11 hectares spread amongst the major crus of Barbaresco, Neive and Treiso, with soils ranging from the argilo-calcaire of Barbaresco to the grey-blue sandstones of Neive.

This single varietal oil has a rich green hue and is a bit less peppery than some of the Italian oils we sell. It get's its sweet fruity aroma from the taggiasche olives, which are considered to be the premium eating olive grown in the Liguria region.

$48.00 / 750ml bottle

Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

A weekend recipe for you. Recipe courtesy of Stonewall Kitchen.

Baked Brie In Puff Pastry with Honey Tarragon Mustard
Kim Gallagher

Serves: 8

Ingredients
1 sheet of frozen Puff Pastry
1/4 cup Stonewall Kitchen Honey Tarragon Mustard
1-5” wheel of Brie or (or small, milder Camembert will do)
1 egg white
1 tsp. water

1. Directions
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet by greasing lightly or lining it with parchment paper.
2. Allow pastry to thaw. Flour a surface and roll the dough into a 13” square. Place the pastry on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Making sure you only cut through the skin of the Brie, run a knife around the top 1/4-inch in from the edge. Make several cuts across the Brie forming small triangles and then gently remove the skin forming a shallow cup to hold the mustard.
4. Place the Brie in the center of the pastry.
5. Spoon 1/4 cup of the Stonewall Kitchen Honey Tarragon Mustard over the Brie.
6. Forming a bag bring the sides of the pastry up to the center top of the Brie round. If there is too much pastry you may have to trim a little off. Carefully press the dough onto the Brie and pinch tightly at the top to seal. You may want to pre-cut a strip of dough from the rolled out pastry to form a false ribbon around the neck of your bag.
7. Whisk together the egg white and water. Brush entire bag with egg whites; this will make the baked dough shine.
8. Place in preheated oven and bake 25-30 minutes until the dough is golden brown.
9. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.
10. With a large spatula transfer the Brie to a serving dish and serve with French bread toasts, sliced apples, grapes and crackers.

Cheese Tasting

Tickets will be available starting tomorrow for our upcoming Cheese & Wine 101: to be held on Wednesday September 10th 2008. More information on this tasting here.

Update Sep 02/2008: This tasting is now sold out.

Hastings Update

Can you say "Plan C"? We've gone back to the very first plan for the front entrance. Go figure...It will give us some more space in the storefront.

Q: do you want to know how to make it rain?

A: Hire a company to come and redo your roof.

We removed some of the existing aluminum siding on the front of the building over the weekend, with hopes of revealing the original parapet that is in some of the old drawings we've discovered. To our surprise, someone had cut it off and made it even all along the top. I think we can do some work to restore it to it's original look.

On a side note, when researching some history on the building at the City of Vancouver Archives, the archivist brought out a huge tome for me to look at, with the strict rules that I had to put on special gloves. Either that or I was being secretly filmed for an Audrey Hepburn reality show. I learned that our building was constructed the same year as The Hudson's Bay at Georgia and Granville. The Bay cost somewhere in the area of a whopping $350,000 to build at that time.

Roccolo Valtaleggio

Roccolo Valtaleggio - Arriving to us from Lombardy, Italy, it's name comes from a characteristic cylindrical building with stone walls located in Valle, once a refuge for hunters. The process used to make the cheese closely recalls the ancient Salva cheese and contains fresh milk from brown alpine cattle which graze on Valtaleggio's fodder. the characteristic cylindrical from is slowly and carefully aged on wooden boards in cellars full of molds containing all different kinds of odors and colors. Its shape permits a softer cheese near the crust and a slightly dry center, intensifying the various flavors and aromas which create this special cheese.