(this one looks like it could be a bit warmer)

let's digress (though i suppose everything on here is a digression) for a minute to talk about a type of cheese other than good old semi-aged basque sheepsmilk.

i present you: brillat savarin.

jean anthelme brillat savarin was the original food-writer, or one of them at least, and he famously said, "a meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye." so in the 1930s, a norman cheesemaker named henri androuët named this incredibly rich triple-creme cheese after him. his son pierre continues making the cheese to this day.

it's basically like butter, but better. or imagine ice cream as cheese--then, you might get a sense of the butterfat involved. there is no cheese with a higher percentage of butterfat. that about sums it up.

after overdosing on double and triple cream cheeses in 1998 (that came wrapped in plastic, but i can't even talk about that right now. ugh, the horror and disrespect. i ask you--what did that poor piece of cheese do to deserve such abuse? whole foods cheese counter, i almost cry every time i walk by you (sorry megan)), i have stayed away from anything that even remotely resembles brie, until a few weeks ago when a little nubbin of brillat savarin appeared on the back table at work. i snooped a bit, and avoided the cheese in part because it was still cold. later, when everyone was snacking and making yummy sounds, i decided to see what the big whoop (wup?) was and tasted some on a piece of stale levain.

i nearly died.

next thing we knew, 7 wheels from two cheesemakers showed up on our doorstep (okay, so maybe i ordered them). we all like the one from delin the best. one day, though, i'll have to make it to an androuët shop for myself to taste the real thing on a slab of bread from poilâne.

for now, i'll just eat it with young walnuts and acme levain.