Cheese with A Message - An Unexpected Treasure at West Side Market - Food Review

I love cheese and at the West Side Market on 15th and 7th Avenue there is a Cheese Monger that has a passion for Cheese that rivals mine. I stumbled upon him one day humming a Grateful Dead tune and I was instantly intrigued. What I like about this eccentric Cheese expert is that he really loves what he does. You can see that love in the messages he puts on the cheeses. Some are funny, some thought provoking, and I’ve even gotten a few that don’t make any sense but it makes the entire cheese selection experience more social, personal and enjoyable.  

For my curious peeps out there, the cheese that I got in the picture is a Butterkase cheese. Butterkase, meaning “Butter Cheese” in German, is a semi-soft cheese that is made from pasteurized cow’s milk.

Most commonly it comes from Germany and Austria but it is also made in other European countries.

Butterkase is buttery and a little spicy. It’s great to eat table side with fruit, or since it melts well, to put on top of burgers, pizzas, baked potatoes etc. The texture is creamy but somewhat firm and it pairs well with Beer, like a Pilsner, or with a glass of Chardonnay.

I plan on using it for a deconstructed French Onion soup that I’m going to make this weekend. The French Onion soup is an experiment because I will be using another unexpected ingredient to see how it turns out. So check back in and see the results. (wink)