Cheese from around the world

Last January Stevey and I had a life changing experience in Amsterdam when we went to a street fair and ate some cheese.
We both thought we had eaten cheese before.
We both thought we had eaten goudas before.
We were wrong.

When you go to Amsterdam* you MUST eat cheese. There are no two ways around this. In between coffee shop trips, bicycle rides and the endless eating you will inevitably do, cheese should be an activity. Don’t worry; the Dutch are friendly people** and they give you ample opportunities to eat cheese. There are street fairs, farmer’s markets, cheese tours, cheese shops, etc (getting behind amsterdam is another blog. If you haven’t been, you must go). The cheese that you will eat in Amsterdam is like none you have ever tasted before.***

Anyway when I came back from Europe I missed cheese so much. Your average Tesco has a wall of delicious cheese and very little of it is the processed crap we have. More specifically Stevey and I became obsessed with Goudas and enthusiastic about trying different cheeses. This led us to Zabars (LOVE Zabars, easily another blog) and discovering our new favorite place: Murray’s cheese shop.

Why is Murray’s awesome? They were patient with me and Steve as we asked all of our cheese related questions. They also would have let us try all the cheeses if we hadn’t become full. We left with several goudas including one from Vermont which was almost as good as what we had in Amsterdam. They also have a tour of their big cheese cold room in the back with samples provided. We haven’t actually gone on that yet, but that is in the works. Also: The tour is only $10. Murrays is also right next door to more awesomeness including Aphrodisia, and Cones (see upcoming blog about ice cream).

We leave you with your new favorite song about cheese:

*Well for that matter anywhere you go in Europe. You should just go to Europe.

**Tell them you’re Canadian or from New York if applicable.

***(unless you are from anywhere in Western Europe. A few weeks ago at Risotteria, Stevey and I were laughed at by a very nice couple from Brussels when we suggested they go get cheese in NY.)

General enthusiasm

Perhaps a good place to start would be to explain about being a general enthusiast. I was one for a while and didn’t realize. Maybe you are too.

Firstly, if the above sentence made you think, “wow I’m excited to think I could be a general enthusiast!” that’s your first clue.

Other clues:

• Use of exclamation points to describe things combined with abundant use of the word “excited.” (examples: I’m excited to drink this orange juice!!!” and “I”m excited to live with Hope!!!”)

• You find yourself really “getting behind things” and wanting to tell people about them.

Being a general enthusiast does not make you a pollyanna. In fact, you most certainly can be a general enthusiast and also be cynical. It also does not mean that you are enthusiastic about EVERYTHING. It just means you’re incredibly excited about some very specific things.

Why we get behind it

Enthusiast (en-thu-si-ast) n. a person filled with enthusiasm for a particular pursuit; an ardent supporter: a Scrabble enthusiast, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Enthusiast.

This, my friends, is what this site is all about, generally. We are generally enthralled with many, many things and wish to share our joy in discovery of new things with everyone around us. We think it’s nice.

Pop culture is riddled with downtrodden messages, pointless irony and nihlism, and we’d like to offer a counter-point of sincere excitement. There’s already a shit-ton of valid misery going on in the world, so why create it needlessly? Here are the things we get behind. We hope you will, too.