MONK’S HEAD

The other night I ate the other cheese I brought home from

Ideal Cheese shop. This cheese is called Monk’s head cheese or Tete de Moine, its a swiss/french variety. It was made by the Monks of Belleley, a monastery, and many of them used this cheese they made to pay rent. Using cheese to pay rent was common with Italians too, they used wheels of Parmesan as rent and currency. I love any cheese machines that are used specifically for one type of cheese and this Girolle that is pictured below represents a great example of GOOD design- the mechanics haven’t changed since it was first invented 800 something years ago, the same way the archetypal shape of a Chanel bag hasn’t changed much. The flavor of the cheese is extremely delicate and has a sweet scent so it must be shaved thin with this Girolle in order to develop it’s fullest flavor. A sweet dessert wine will go well but so does a Maker’s Mark straight…

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Girolle goes to work. 360 degree blade. I imagine you can use this for other semi “hard” cheeses. No pun intended…..

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Closeup Time. The shaving creates a flower like shape.
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I spoon the shaved cheese. Soft and delicate like lace.
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Second Part, I wanted to pair a Fig Compote to go with the bread and cheese. Since the cheese has a slight flowery scent, I decided to spice the figs..
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Cinnamon, Clove, lemons, ginger rocks, and sugar crystals.
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Dried Figs. It’s good to score them so that the wine I’m about to pour in soaks into it.

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Burn!!!

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Bubbly goodness, all the flavors fornicate in a hot wine bath.

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Time to setup, the bread I used was a soft butter roll from Big Red Tomato which is a Japanese bread store on St.Marks street. Japanese people make better better bread than Koreans do, okay I admit it!!

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So I just place the fig compote on top of bread with cheese but I also want to drizzle some more sauce on top.
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I make ice shot molds at home so they are always ready for me when its 8 pm. You know how they sell ice popsicle molds? Well they sell shot molds too. My hand looks extremely creepy in this picture but I was trying to pour it at a weird angle. Sorry!

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Devil’s lubrication. Mixed drinks cause hangovers, this doesn’t. Goodnight.

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