14 February 2008

Beautiful Stench and Bum Hummers




As I strode from the Market I swung my bag gaily and in my wake I left a foul stench. On the tram a woman checked her baby's nappy thinking that the poor child was creating the malodour that filled the carriage. But I was the culprit. Me, trying to look invisible with a really stinky washed rind cheese in my bag, giving off it's pungent scent of dirty, mouldy bacteria strewn milky deliciousness.




And so I brought home the Millawa King River Gold washed rind cheese from North Eastern Victoria. After hearing mention of it from The Gobbler, I sought it out on our trip to Beechworth, Rutherglen and Albury. Failing to secure myself a piece I went the following week to Queen Victoria Market to procure some.

In spite of the strong smell it was not robust in flavour. I found it pleasant but mild for a washed rind, and after cutting into it I wondered whether it was a little immature as there was no ooze. But on reading up on it, I found that this was the intention as a milder, smooth washed rind.

It was vaguely smokey with a salty finish indicative of the brine it is washed in. On comparison, I much prefer the
Barossa Cheese Company's washed rind, being much closer to a Pont L'Eveque in form, crust and texture, not to mention a more pronounced flavour.



I laid it out with some Bum Hummers bought in Albury, for the label boldly pronounced, "1000 farts in a jar". They were crisp, spicy and delicious pickled onions, a great textural balance for the cheese. The two items sat very well with some soft artisanal wood fired bread from Daylesford and a glass of Chambers Amontillado - a very dry sherry in the Spanish style - from Rutherglen which goes down well with Tapas.

Happy as a pig in mud wallowing in fetid stench was I. And proud of the fact that it all was low on food miles and high on ingenuity, passion and care, it left a smug
wonderment in all who ate of it.










10 comments:

purple goddess said...

gotta love the Bum Hummers. Closest thing to "real" pickled onions you can get.

Brings back memories of Purple Nanny's home made ones.

grocer said...

bottom!
hee hee!
fart!
hee hee!

grocer said...

slightly off topic, but did you know they don't have a jar of pickled onions on the counter at most fish & chip shops in Sydney.

purple goddess said...

Seriously??

I have to say I've never noticed.

You guys do weird stuff to scallops, too.

What is a fish 'n chip dinner without the pickled onions??

stickyfingers said...

Crikey that's sacrilege! I suppose though the art of pickling on a small scale is dying out so most of the chippies down here actually have nasty ones you'd rather not eat anyway...

grocer said...

what happens to scallops?

stickyfingers said...

Don't they call potato cakes scallops in Sydney?

Pat Churchill said...

My father used to make great pickled onions. His comment as he tucked into them was invariably: "We'll have to tie the sheets down tonight!"

Anonymous said...

My kinda food Sticky.
years ago we also bought some KRG from Milawa that was upon reflection a bit over-ripe. We went to a wedding & left the cheese in the car overnight. The next days journey home feeling the effects of a monster hangover was made all the more unpleasant by the stench that had permeated every nook of the car.
A friend lent into the window to say goodbyes & recoiled with that knowing but judgemental glare that suggested they thought we had both been farting awfully & had become immune to the fetid & noxious stench. My wife was mortified & made an embarrassed attempt to set them straight by blaming the cheese. 'Sure it is' they said, but their noses told them otherwise & we were hastily waved off.
The cheese practically combusted by the time we got home & was placed in an earthenware dish with lid, in a platic bag, in a bin with a brick on top at the bottom of our garden till the garbos thankfully came the next day.
Sorry to bang on but this cheese made a big impression on me!

grocer said...

aha. I have lived in that many places I never know what to call them PG. Potato Cake, Potato Scallop, Potato Fritter... the list goes on.

The unadorned word scallop is however, simply that.

LOL gobs! I could almost smell that cheese from here!