Since I reported on the darkest corners of the meat trade final 12 months, I haven’t been in a position to eat something with a face. It’s a office hazard, I assume. Eating on greens and grains and tofu goes high quality, thanks, however I hadn’t realized how a lot I’ve been lacking the dopamine hit that comes with one thing like a salty piece of fried hen, till I used to be not too long ago offered with an enormous hunk of cheese at Gem Wine in New York Metropolis.
The waiter plopped down our essential dish: a voluptuous wedge of salt-flecked gouda haloed by sturdy slices of firm-but-sweet pear, flanked by a pile of marinated peppers and a plate of roasted celery root. I can’t let you know the place on this planet the cheese got here from, or precisely how dangerous dairy manufacturing is for cows and the atmosphere (pretty, most likely), however I do know the sight of it made me foam on the mouth. The heft of the smooth-bottomed cheese knife felt highly effective in my hand, and the thick wedge fought again, tugging on the blade in a approach mushrooms might by no means. The flaky, misshapen bits of cheese melted in my mouth, filling the fatty, salty, meat-shaped gap in my coronary heart.
On the finish of that meal I sat again in my chair, unbuttoned my cargo pants, and sighed with satisfaction. Then, I began to marvel: Why is giant format cheese not the norm at eating places?
Earlier than you level on the mélange of cheese boards on menus across the nation, please maintain. Little bits of cheese simply don’t have the identical carnal attraction as one enormous chunk. They’re additionally much less equitable; when you’re specializing in the aged goat, your “buddy” has already completed up the matchbox-sized brie sitting stage left. All is truthful in love and large cheese. Whether or not or not you eat meat, I suggest that we consider massive cheese like we do a roasted branzino or a half-chicken: a sharing dish that may be simply accessorized with a rainbow of veg-heavy small plates.
To make certain, Gem isn’t the inventor of Large Cheese. An eight-minute stroll away, the Greek restaurant Kiki’s serves an almighty block of saganaki that’s been rolled in filo pastry, fried to a golden crisp, and drizzled with honey. In keeping with a colleague, the Kansas Metropolis pizza joint Mama Leones used to provide tables large slabs of provolone on a plate with the bread service. At Hatchet Corridor in LA, you’ll discover a single massive cheddar on the menu, which is served with cornbread. And I not too long ago had my first at-home raclette expertise with associates. Melting the cheese with a lamp-like grill and scraping the melty puddles onto bread was thrilling.
