Such a cheesy birthday!

My birthday is in September; the 15th to be exact. I love the month of September for many reasons - football season starts, the transition from summer to fall, and of course because it's my (and my mom's) birthday month. I love birthdays. I believe in celebrating the entire month of your birthdate.

 It doesn't have to be something fabulous or extravagant but you should celebrate every single day in some way.

 

On September 1, the Evil Red Genius and I decided to do just that and start my month of celebrations off right! Not only was it a holiday but we had no previous plans and decided to take a trip to Shirlington Village in Arlington to try two of our favorite things - cheese and wine!!

 

 

Cheesetique is a boutique cheese shop which also has a fantastic little cafe/bar and a decent selection of wine! From blocks of cheese, to sandwiches, to soups, to salads, to mac and cheese to brunch items, it is definitely cheese heaven!

I couldn't have chosen a better place to start off my birthday month!

 

 

After drooling over the three expansive cheese cases as we walked in the door, we sat down and attacked the menu. Wow, where do we start? One of everything, please!
It was only 11am and we were in no rush!

 

Little did we know that it was our lucky day because it was a Monday.
Guess what Monday at Cheesetique means?

 

M.Y.O.B.

Make your own board...... of cheese!

 

Usually you are limited to the selection of cheeses allowed on your board, but not on Mondays!!
You can pick any that you want out of the case!!!!! Now as excited as we were to hear this news, it was also a little grueling.

 

How on earth do two cheese lovers pick only 6 out of 300!!?? Yes, that's right. They have over 300 cheeses from around the world from which to choose! Each one is cut to order also so if you're in a rush, know what you want or don't come to this place. It's worth the wait, believe me.
 You want to savor every smell and bite anyway! (Oh, and fyi, we will return on a Monday! Hello... holiday in October!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's what we chose (from left to right shown above):

 

Whiskey Cheddar

Basil Garlic Gouda

Humboldt Fog

Oma

Goat d'Affinois

Piave Vechio

 

While we waited for the cheese board to arrive, we perused the tiny little wine selection, sure to find something (or 2 or 3 or 4) that we'd want to try. There were quite a few I recognized, some I did not. It was limited as to what we could open in the store to consume and what we could purchase to take home. Their cork fee was outrageous as well, even thought it was already built in, and really was my only complaint about the place. (Don't worry, Arthur, you still have no competition).

 

It was blazing hot outside and we wanted something that was going to pair well with all the cheeses (that's not easy to do!) and was on the lighter end of the reds. 

 

2011 Andre Brunel Cotes du Rhone from France

 

 

 

I barely know a thing about French wines and decided a while ago I want to educate myself so let's make that part of the adventure!

 

 

This wine is 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah and 10% old-vine Cinsault. It has aromas and flavors of small red berry fruits, black currant and black cherries with slight touch of Provencal herbs and cinnamon spices.

 

 Most importantly, it went really well with the all of the cheeses!!!

SUCCESS!!

 

 

We were both pleased the most with the Humboldt Fog and wine pairing. The cheese became creamier and you could taste it still getting better even after the cheese had been consumed. 

 

Evil Red Genius: I love what that does!

Tiny Wine Girl:  That's what every man wishes I'd say to him!

 

The wine brought the goat cheese flavors to the forefront which made us extremely happy. So much so that when we tried the Goat d'Affinois it didn't even taste like goat cheese to us until we drank the wine. It was so exciting to see what the wine brought out in the cheese!

 

Anyone who has followed my blog will realize that I love a funky-smelling wine. The funkier the wine smells, the happier I usually am with the taste. Just because the wine smells funky (dirty tennis shoes, manure, farmland, wet forest floor) does not mean that the wine will taste bad!

Trust me, I've been there!

 

Well, I tend to often feel the same about cheese, but not as strongly. There are some really funky smelling cheeses out there and if you can get past the smell, you'll be surprised of incredible taste! The Oma cheese on our board was a perfect example.

 

Tiny Wine Girl: OMG! Oma! It's the FUNK! (with a pleasantly surprised exclamation)

Evil Red Genius: It's OUR kind of funk! (with a smile of pleasant acknowledgement and agreement)

 

 

Once the cheese board had been demolished, the best quote of the day, as if wanting to be dared,

"I'm not above licking the board......" In case you're wondering.... we didn't..... this time.

 

Next on our cheese adventure was two grilled cheese sammiches and soup to share. 

(I know how to spell sandwiches, but when they are yummy, I have always given them a nickname of sammiches, so there!)

 

 

 

The "Grown-up Grilled Cheese" is the signature sandwich and with a heap of artisan Prairie Breeze Cheddar melted on grilled sourdough.

Not only was this sammich delicious but it literally begged me to dip it in the creamy tomato soup that was sitting next to it. I couldn't say no to the sammich and man, am I glad I didn't. The sammich was amazing but dipping it sure did make the soup even better!

The second sammich was the "Grilled Caprese" - a perfection of mozzarella, tomato, basil and basil mayo on grilled ciabatta.

 

I don't know what took us so long to try Cheesetique (especially since they have had one in Del Ray for 10 years!) but I can guarantee you it set the bar high for my month of birthday celebrations!

It will take quite a while for us to eat our way through 300 cheeses but I promise we'll enjoy every single moment!

 

 

"Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures."

- MK Fisher