My favourite cheese at the Monteith's CheeseFest 2012

This year the Monteith's CheeseFest was even better than last year, I got a Monteith beer on arrival, but I was pleased to see that you could also have wine, and my friend Valentina got a white one, plus we were offered a small plate, fork and napkin (we didn't have those last year!). Then in we went for some serious tastings! Being both Italians I guess that we were a bit fussy (or at least I was, and Valentina obediently followed me to the cheese stalls that I wanted to visit). 

Remembering the previous year, and my inability to eat cheese without bread, I had a box of crackers in my bag (sounds cheesy eehh!) but I was also happy to see that there was also some bread available this year from one of the sponsors (and we even got a couple of loaves in the goodie bag). 

I didn't take many photos, in fact I only took these published below: it was hard to balance a bottle of beer, a small plate of cheese and fork, and get my iPhone out. So the photos this year are of my favourite cheese: Massimiliano's mozzarella!

I like to point out that his was the only cheese of which I had two tastings of (Valentina had three), maybe because we are Italian and mozzarella is what we like, or maybe because the cheese makers are Italians and it was great to see Massimiliano again (he even won a prize for his mozzarella so we were all happy), or a mixture of everything... anyway, the mozzarella I made at home and posted yesterday was quickly forgotten after tasting this one!

And Massimiliano gave Valentina and me a burrata each to take home! Yum, I saved mine for Arantxa, it is her favourite cheese and she was so happy when I told her!

We also bought lots of other yummy cheeses (really cheap on the night), and today I made a focaccia with some feta and some fresh goat cheese, a real luxury to have good cheese to cook with, instead of saving it only for after dinner treats!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©