Cheese Festival 2012 review

The popularity of the cheese festival hasn’t taken a knock with the move to the new venue last year. Driving there this morning I saw the familiar “Sold Out” signs and heard the usual stories of people arriving and not being able to get in. There were many thousands of people there, it was vibing. Big time.

It’s pretty much the same experience as last year. I didn’t really notice anything radically new. I didn’t buy much cheese as I didn’t see the kind of cheese I like (gorgonzola), but I did buy a bunch of other cool stuff. Here’s the stuff I bought, my tips for you…

Thought it would be a good idea to start with some cheese, seeing as it was a cheese festival and all… This blue cheese Danish feta from Arista Dairy was awesome. So smooth and creamy but with a not too subtle blue cheese taste.

This one is still dairy, so a good segue from cheese to other stuff. This is Curds & Whey yoghurt is the creamiest must delicious yoghurt I’ve had in ages. I liked it so much I bought a whole litre!

I bought a balsamic reduction last year and been on the lookout for some more. I was fortunate to taste this stuff because it’s perfect. I went straight to the bread stand so I could dip it in olive oil with this balsamic reduction as soon as I got home.

Talking about olive oil (another impressive segue right there), I picked up this 2 litre box of Saint Sebastion Bay olive oil for R120. I think the guys at Greenleaf Olive Company have made a mistake, because this stuff is delicious and must be worth way more than R120. I really enjoyed the fresh, green, flavours.

This was definitely the most unexpected find. A new product in the By Nature range, brinjal biltong! It tastes like biltong, same texture as snap sticks. I reckon vegetarians will love this stuff…

This is an extra tip. I didn’t buy any of this but I thought it was a really interesting product. Mestervik cheese is a Norwegian style of cheese which is quite sweet, very different. Give it a try.