Cheese Lovers

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we have an advanced level lesson for you guys all about

food.

What kind of food are we talking about today, Marco?

Today we're talking about cheese.

So there's so many different types of cheese, so many varieties.

So we're going to take a look at these varieties.

You may know them or not.

But we're also going to take a look at the pronunciation because most of them are either

Italian or French.

So how do you pronounce these in maybe in American English?

Good question.

Let's listen to our dialogue for the first time and we'll be back in a moment to talk

about the wonderful world of cheese.

Hello everyone.

My name is Lori and I want to welcome you to this course.

We will learn all about one of the oldest yet most delicious foods on this planet, cheese.

Let's get started.

Cheese is usually categorized into four types, soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard.

The designation refers to the amount of moisture in the cheese which directly affects its texture.

Making cheese is an ancient practice dating back thousands of years and the home cheese

maker can usually find recipes for cheese that fall into any of the four categories.

Soft cheese includes cottage cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, brie, blue, roquefort, mozzarella,

muenster, and similar cheeses.

These cheeses generally pair well with fruit or meats and can be used as breakfast cheeses

in an omelet or as pasta fillings.

They are usually mildly flavored and very high in moisture.

American, Colby, Kojak, and similar cheeses are in the semi-soft category.

These are slightly stronger in flavor and cover a wide range of uses.

Kojak cheese, a blend of Colby and Monterey Jack, is one of the most popular.

This allows the sharper flavor of the Colby to be combined with the milder Jack cheese

and also melts better than plain Colby.

Grilled cheese sandwiches often use American cheese and Mexican cheeses such as asadero

and queso fresco are becoming more popular.

Hard cheeses include parmesan, romano, asiago, swiss, gruyere, and others.

Parmesan and romano are most familiar as the grated powder used to top spaghetti, but they

are also used as a companion mince for fruit, wine, nuts, and other appetizer items.

Swiss is a popular sandwich cheese and melts well, unlike some other hard cheeses.

Alright we're back, so obviously this is a very interesting lesson because it also gives

us an insight on how cheeses are categorized.

I personally did not know that you had all these categories of cheeses.

Starting out with the soft cheeses.

That's right, so basically they're broken into these soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and

hard categories.

The soft cheeses are the ones that are actually, you know, you could touch them and they're

soft, they kind of move under your finger.

And the famous ones I think are cottage cheese, which is almost like yogurt.

Yeah, and cream cheese.

And cream cheese as well.

But also ricotta, and brie, and roquefort, and mozzarella.

So for example, these cheeses, they're usually, well they're obviously very soft cheeses.

Do you say cheeses or cheese, or chees-eye?

Yeah we just say cheese normally, or different kinds of cheese, so in that case you make

the plural kinds of cheese.

Types of cheese.

So these kinds of cheese, they are recommended, or they say that they pair well with fruits

or meat.

So when we talk about pairing a cheese with fruits, or pairing a cheese with wine, what

are we saying there?

In that case we're saying that it's best to eat with certain kinds of food.

So you can say, I would recommend pairing this red wine with lamb.

But in the case of cheese you could say, I would recommend pairing this delicious brie

cheese with fruit.

Okay, so you actually have brie with fruit.

That's right.

It's, well it depends on the kind of cheese.

A lot of times you see mozzarella on pizzas, and so it's not paired, it's actually a part

of the dish.

It's an ingredient, right.

But if you're going to eat a piece of cheese alone, you can have it maybe with some fruit.

So I guess that's the main difference between pairing and having it as an ingredient.

It's pairing, you're combining it, but it's not really part of the dish.

No, and as an ingredient it's actually, it has to be in the dish to make it work.

And so you have a lot of these delicious soft cheeses that you eat at breakfast, or sometimes

dessert, ricotta, cream cheese, these are all parts of desserts, like cheesecake for

example.

Oh yeah, what do they use in cheesecake?

Usually cream cheese.

Oh really?

Yeah.

But then you get into these other cheeses which are semi-soft or semi-hard.

And semi here just means part.

So it's partially hard, partially soft.

And these cheeses are different because you might use them sliced on sandwiches, things

like that.

In this category you have American and Colby, and Monterey Jack is also very, very popular.

So these actually do have a more American sound to it.

The American cheese or Monterey Jack, that sounds a little bit different than all the

Italian or French sounding cheeses that we had in the soft ones.

That's right, and you'd even have something like cheddar in this category.

There's another...

Cheddar cheese.

Yeah, there's another good cheese.

As you said, these are very typically put in sandwiches.

Yeah, I mean you can use them in different ways.

Sometimes we grate cheese, that means we rub it against this machine, a grater, to make

it come out in these little fine pieces.

For example, on top of pasta or on top of nachos.

So we have grated cheese, but you can also have sliced cheese, and that's the way that

we cut cheese to put it on a sandwich.

So for example, if you go to McDonald's and you get a burger, usually the cheese that's

on your hamburger is cheddar cheese, right?

That's right, it's a slice of cheddar cheese.

Okay.

So moving on to our next category, well actually towards the end of the different types of

cheese under the semi-soft category, they also talk about Mexican cheeses such as asadero

and queso fresco.

I love queso fresco.

You've had this before?

Yes, many times.

What do you usually have it with or how do you pair it?

Usually it's an ingredient on tacos because it's a little bit crumbly.

It's like balls as opposed to being one chunk, one big piece.

And so we usually have it like that or I've also had it as just a piece of cheese paired

with a fried plantain or sour cream.

It's actually very good.

The thing with queso fresco is all of the cheese, they also depend on how mature they

are, how long they've taken to make them.

And queso fresco means fresh in Spanish and this is the main factor in this type of cheese

that is very, very immature.

It's a very fresh cheese.

You can make it in like a day or two.

Exactly.

It just takes one night to sit and to become cheese basically.

But other cheeses, and we'll see some of these in the hard cheeses, take a very long time

to become their final cheese state.

And one of those cheeses is parmesan.

In Italy, when you buy parmesan, they have these big wheels of it, they're circles.

And you have to pay according to how old it is.

Oh, really?

18 months, 36 months.

And it gets more expensive the older it is.

So obviously the older it is, just like wine, it has a more intense flavor.

That's right.

And there are special characteristics for certain ages.

Sometimes people really like the young ones.

It depends on your taste and what you're going to use it for.

But Romano is another cheese in Italy that's used like parmesan on top of pastas.

So spaghetti, you would grate it and you put it on top of pasta.

What about, they also mentioned this other one, Asiago.

Asiago cheese, Swiss cheese is the one with the holes.

Asiago is, I don't know, maybe it's Spanish.

But then we have Gruyere, which is a French cheese and tends to be very, very, very strong

flavored.

And I think Gruyere is the cheese that usually many people use for making fondue.

So they basically have this big pot or this medium-sized pot and all the cheese just melts

and you just dip pieces of bread or vegetables in there and you eat this just melted cheese.

Fondue, very popular dish in Switzerland.

That's right.

But yeah, all these different types of cheese, as you said, there are so many different types

and according to the age.

Now you lived in Italy for a while and obviously they are a nation that enjoy having wine and

cheese very regularly, right?

That's right.

And I have to say that people in Parma take their cheese very, very seriously.

How serious?

Well, a lot of people buy these big pieces of parmesan cheese and they keep them in the

refrigerator and you don't just put the parmesan cheese on the spaghetti.

You also break pieces of it and you eat it alone with a glass of wine or some people

like to put a little drop of balsamic vinegar on top of the cheese to give it some flavor.

So there are many different ways to eat it.

I'm sure it's different all over the country, but mozzarella, parmesan cheese, Romano, these

are all cheeses that are very, very important in Italian culture.

It's very interesting because, well, obviously we have listeners from all over the world,

but some countries have a good culture for wine, cheese and cured meats.

Like for example, in South America, if you visit Argentina or Chile, they are a nation

that actually have a lot of variety of cheese, wines and cured meats.

But if you take a trip to maybe Colombia, they're not really that type of culture.

They really consume cheese and wine in the same manner.

Interesting.

I wonder if it has to do with the historical relationship between Europe and the place

like Argentina.

In Argentina, there's lots of Italian former people who came over from Italy many, many

years ago.

So that might have something to do with it.

Spain has a very strong tradition of cured meats and cheeses.

They have manchego cheese, things like this.

So I wonder if there's a relationship there.

I think it's definitely an influence in some way.

But the thing with cheese, I think in many places it's very expensive.

It can be.

Comparatively to if you can have a regular mozzarella cheese, but sometimes these other

types, they can be very expensive.

Yeah, it's like good wine.

If you really want to pay for good cheese, it's going to cost you a lot of money.

Now what about this famous blue cheese?

We didn't mention it, but this is a very famous French cheese that basically has mold on it.

Well, yeah, all cheese, you're growing cultures.

You're growing these things that are alive.

But blue cheese, you can actually see it.

And it's moldy.

It's white and there's some blue or green mold.

And some people love it and some people hate it.

I think it depends on your tastes, but it does have a very strong flavor.

Do you personally like it or dislike it?

I do not like blue cheese, but I love other kinds of cheeses like camembert, which is

a French cheese with a very strong flavor, very stinky cheese.

So it's not necessarily that it's strong.

It's just that I don't like the taste very much.

Okay.

Actually, it's very popular to put on salads, right?

Blue cheese sauce or a dressing.

Blue cheese dressing, yeah, that's right.

It's made out of blue cheese.

It's a very interesting topic and I'm sure that locally, many people also make or countries

have their own types of cheese.

I know for example, in Ecuador, we do have also something very similar to queso fresco

that's commonly used for breakfast.

And here's an interesting thing.

They put it in their cup of coffee.

No way.

It's cheese cheese, isn't it?

It's cheese.

So basically you have coffee with milk, very popular in Latin America.

And people will take a piece of cheese and put it in their coffee.

So obviously with the heat, it won't melt completely, but it will become very bendy

and very soft.

And then they'll have it with the coffee and the bread.

So it gives it a very interesting taste.

It may sound a little bit peculiar, but it actually has a very, very interesting taste,

very good taste.

I've had many friends try and they're like, wow, you wouldn't really think that you would

probably dip cheese in coffee, but it works.

No, it's a very unusual combination.

Now what is this special cheese called?

It's called queso de mesa, which is basically a normal, common, everyday table cheese.

So it's not any particular, it's very similar to queso fresco, very immature cheese.

So I'm very curious to know if in your country you also have a strong cheese culture.

And if in your country you guys do have a lot of cheese, what kind of cheese is it?

I know that every country has its own variety of cheeses and some places like China aren't

really into cheese.

So you can let us know if your country doesn't really have that many cheese options.

So we're very curious to hear about you and your taste in cheese.

Let us know.

Our website is EnglishPod.com.

We hope to see you there.

All right, guys.

See you later.

Enjoy your meal.