Name: Jarlsberg Special Reserve

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Norway

Price in Iowa: $8.33/lb.

Milk: skim milk

Processing: Press the curd and age for at least one year.

Texture: Semi-Firm (with small to medium holes)

Color: Pale yellow

Rind: Wax

Aroma: Sharp and sweet.

Taste: Nutty, warm, sweet dairy

Mouth feel: Firm and unyielding
 
Notes: Yummy yummy yummy.  I want to make grilled cheese sandwiches with this.  I also enjoyed the slight squeak that the cheese made when you chew it.  That's the one thing that I love about fresh cheese curds, and now I can get my squeak on with Jarlsberg.

Fruit of the week: Ackee

Name: Jamaican Ackees

Brand: Nature Farms

Place of Purchase: Lucky Dragon (Ting's) Grocery in Des Moines, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Jamaica

Price in Iowa: $9.95 for 540 grams

Description: Weird.  Imagine a can full of runny scrambled eggs.

Flavor: Salty with floral and asparagus notes, with an allium aftertaste.

Aroma: Asparagus and grass

Texture/Mouth-feel: Soft and runny in the brine.  The fruit pieces themselves were very yielding, like tofu.

Notes: I will admit that this fruit scared the crap out of me.  Not only does it look like scrambled eggs in a can, but improperly prepared ackee fruits are toxic.


So, I ate a little.  And it was good.  I think that you need to do something savory with this fruit, though.  For example, salt fish and ackees is the national dish of Jamaica.  So, tomorrow night I'm going to slice up some tomatoes, onions and peppers and mix them with ackees.  Then, I'm going to pour them over a nice piece of cod.


I expect good things.

Libations of the Week: Ski and Cheerwine

 Name: Ski

 

Brand: Double Cola Company

Place of Purchase: Some gas station in Joelton, TN

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Country/Region of Origin: Tennessee, USA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled

Price in Iowa: $1.59

Description: a neon green, sparkling drink

Flavors: Sweet orange and sour lemon

Mouth-feel: Bubbly and acidic.

Aroma: Lemons and oranges

Notes: I had never heard of Ski, but it's apparently popular all over the Southeast and in Southern Illinois.  This stuff is pretty potent.  The natural sweet orange essence and lemon flavors create a unique citrus flavor that is very good when chilled.  However, either due to these flavors or the high caffeine content, this soda is very acidic.  It started to make my cheeks tingle, so I stopped drinking the bottle halfway through.  Still, it wok me up and had a great flavor profile.

Name: Cheerwine

 

Brand: Carolina Beverage Company

Place of Purchase: Some gas station in Brunswick, GA

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Country/Region of Origin: USA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled

Price in Iowa: $2.50

Description: a bright red carbonated beverage

Flavors: Short-lived cherry flavor followed by metallic/mineral notes

Mouth-feel: Very bubbly

Aroma: Cherries and berries

Notes: I was pretty excited to get my hands on some Cheerwine.  This mystical Southern libation has achieved legendary status in my mind.  I was lucky to find the glass-bottled variety, which is sweetened with cane sugar.  Unfortunately, Cheerwine isn't that great.  The cherry flavors, while intense, only lasted a few moments.  Then I was left with a mouthful of red, carbonated, North Carolina-flavored water.  I think I prefer the mouth-burn of Ski.

Fruit of the week: Honey Red Dates

Name: Honey Red Dates

Brand: Ah Jiao

Place of Purchase: Uni-Mart Korean Grocery in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: South Korea

 

Price in Iowa: $1.89 for 200 grams of fruit

Description: Big, sticky red raisins

Flavor: Very sweet, with a meaty, mealy flavor underneath

Aroma: They smell like honey

Texture/Mouth-feel: Sticky exterior, the skin is rigid with a good snap to it, the interior is mostly hollow.  Most of the fruit is attached to the skin.

Notes: I picked these up at the Korean grocery when I was stocking up on ginseng and Katsu sauce.  I knew that the flavor would be nothing like the actual fruit, but there were a number of varieties so I decided to try one.  They were very good.  This candied "date" is actually a dried jujube.  Typically in Korea, the candied variety is eaten with tea (or in tea), but there are a variety of other dishes that use the dried fruit (some sort of cake made from dried jujubes, tamarind, chilies and jaggery that sounds fantastic).  These were a nice treat, but I could only eat a few of them.  Very very sweet.