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2009 Feline Foodie Awards®

2009 Feline Foodie Awards®

Portland, Oregon

For Immediate Release

 

Spaulding Gray, Portland’s Favorite Feline Foodie and CF(eline)O of the Feline Foodie Awards®, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Feline Foodie Awards®.
When interviewed, Mr. Gray admitted it had been a grueling and tough job, “But someone had to do it, choosing the “Best of the Best” in cheeses from the Pacific Northwest, Wisconsin, the United States and beyond.”
 Mr. Gray personally sampled and reviewed each winner and added how impressed he was with the high quality of entries.
 

Best of Show (tie)

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese – No Woman

“Beecher’s No Woman is the cheese that started it all,” stated Mr. Gray, “the first cheese The Lady brought home that I fell in love with. I found that it was a perfect pairing with 34° Sesame Crispbread Crackers and peromyscus leucopus pate.”

BelGioioso – Burrata

Per Spaulding Gray, “The first time I tasted this divine little pocket of yummy cream and mozzarella, I thought I had died and gone to cheese heaven. When The Lady visited the BelGioioso Bellevue Plant where Burrata is made, I was so overcome I lost one of my lives…”

 Best Northwest Farmstead Cheese

Willamette Valley Cheese Company Brindisi

“The Willamette Valley Cheese Company, in addition to making a superior Fontina-style cheese (Brindisi), this local cheesemaker is to be commended as a sustainable Jersey Cow dairy farm that is 100% certified organic.” Spaulding added when naming this cheese his favorite farmstead cheese.

 

Best Bait Cheese

Roth Kase – Petite Swiss

According to Portland’s Favorite Feline Foodie, “Roth Kase Petite Swiss is preferred 10 to 1 by mus musculus living in the Salmon Creek area of SW Washington State.” Now that’s quite a ringing endorsement.
 

Best Pub Cheese

Clawson Creamery – Cotswold

“I must admit I gravitate to flavored cheeses and Cotswold with its onion and chive taste is right up there as one of the best,” states Mr. Gray.

 Best Flavored Cheese Curds

Golden Age Cheese Company Jalapeno Cheese Curds

“These little squeekers make a terrific snack!!” Spaulding Gray

Cheese Closest in Taste to Grade School White Paste:

Caerphilly

 

 Best Everyday Cheeses

“ ‘Everyday’ means the cheese is high quality and yet still affordable for everyday use. Tillamook delivers on so many wonderful cheeses but this is their best.”

 

Cheddar

Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar

Swiss

Roth Kase Petite Swiss

Blue/Gorgonzola

Black River Gorgonzola

Parmesan

BelGioioso American Grana

Gouda

Beemster Vlaskaas

 

   Best Licensed Cheesemaker and Favorite,

Former All-around Party Guy

Roth Kase’s Bob, Wisconsin Licensed Cheesemaker

“Although I was prohibited from accompanying The Lady the day she made cheese with Bob at the Roth Kase Cheese facility, I chose Bob based on how much The Lady liked him…and the fact that he was very patient with her and her other Cheese Stewards who were making cheese that day”. Spaulding Gray added that he trusts The Lady’s instincts as though they were his own.

Cheese That Belongs in the Litterbox:

Hard Goat’s Cheddar

  

Cheese Banned From French Public Transportation

Berthaut Epoisses

At room temperature, this cheese is pungent enough to set off the neighbors and have them calling the EPA to report the possibility of a toxic leak. “But, without compare, this is the tastiest Camembert that this Feline Foodie has tasted. I would give at least one of my lives to always have Epoisses at the manse. Ooh, la, la…I love this cheese,” Spaulding Gray exclaimed enthusiastically.

 Special Award:

Sustainable Farming: Turning Sh*t Literally into Shinola

Wisconsin’s Crave Brothers

When The Lady went to Wisconsin to make cheese, one of the cheesemakers her group visited was the Crave Brothers of Waterloo. This farmstead cheesemaker makes the best Mascarpone I have ever tasted.
But above and beyond their superior cheeses, the four brothers literally turn sh*t into shinola, using their  Holstein herd’s processed manure to power their entire plant and up to 120 houses in the surrounding neighborhood.
“These guys are amazing and deserve this special award and it is bestowed on The Crave Brothers with pride,” Mr. Gray enthusiastically exclaims.
 
Spaulding Gray was a stray, gray striped tomcat who adopted The Lady and The Man when they lived in Southern California before migrating to the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Gray reviews the cheeses The Lady sells, observes humankinds and generally acts obnoxious whenever he wishes.

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4 thoughts on “2009 Feline Foodie Awards®

  1. Hi, I’m looking into opening a cheese shop in Atlanta. I’d love to chat with you about what knowledge and education I need to have about cheese, if any. Thanks!
    Hadley

  2. Hadley,
    I am sending you a couple of links via email that may assist you. Opening a cheese shop in this economy (or anytime, for that matter) is a daunting undertaking. I work for a national chain that already had everything “in place when I arrived and I have no finanacial risk…I wish you the best!!

  3. Hi again, Mr. Gray:
    I don’t know what brand of Caerphilly you tried, but I sincerely believe that if you had one selected by Neal’s Yard Dairy, you would reconsider your position on it. The crucial thing is to eat it as soon as possible, as it dehydrates at a tragic rate, and all the fresh lemon and pineapple notes (as well as the brilliant flakiness of the paste) tend to vanish as soon as the cheese meets plastic wrap. Sorry– of course that’s not news to you! 🙂 I’m just geeking out. I had a craving for Caerphilly the other night… and sadly, there was none to be had. [sigh] And I’ve got to say it again: Great blog!

  4. Mongress, The Lady brought home a Caerphilly that had no natural rind and was vac-packed. I have been told this is not a good one to sample; but it was all I had. Her kiosk has since discontinued that Caerphilly and will hopefully bring one of quality. In the interim, she has promised to seek the one you recommend. As for “geeking out”, we do that all the time around the manse…carry on… 🙂

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