Cheese of the “week,” monkfish and a side of proposal

Going into this weekend, I was looking forward to a relaxing sojourn at the Northern Neck with TBC and his parents, as well as the opportunity to sample a new cheese with a group of like-minded cheese lovers.

Who knew the cheese would be the least exciting part of the weekend?! Check out http://timandmelinda.blogspot.com/ for a play-by-play of what went down at 1:00 p.m. on the dock.

To celebrate our big news on Saturday, as well as TBC’s aunt & uncle’s Northern Neck house acquisition, we had dinner at Swank’s on Main Street in Kilmarnock with TBC's family and friends.

In all honesty, at my first review of the menu I expected a mediocre meal, albeit in a quaint setting. The appetizer list was all over the place: thai beef salad, fried catfish & dunk confit egg rolls among others. The entrée list was more focused on standard upscale American offerings: assorted seafood, pasta & meats.

I started with a Maker’s and Ginger and then shared an order of duck egg rolls with mango chutney.

The egg rolls had nice flavor, a crispy exterior that wasn’t weighed down by the peanut oil used to fry them and a slightly chewy texture. However, the mango chutney overpowered the eggrolls. The use of cinnamon in the chutney became the dominant flavor and disguised the subtleties of the egg roll's filling. The chutney would have been better paired with vanilla ice cream.

Isn’t it hard to concentrate on the egg rolls with all that bling in the way?

I had roasted monkfish served over caramelized onion mashed potatoes for my entrée. Monkfish has a texture and flavor that’s pretty similar to lobster. Another member of our group also had the monkfish and agreed that it was a knock-out dish. The few bites I had of TBC’s trout amandine topped with crab and served over stone-ground grits were also fantastic. In fact, all 9 of us that dined that night were pretty impressed by our meals.

Most ordered coffee after dinner, but TBC and I have a really hard time passing up a dessert menu. (After our first date at Firefly TBC said that my eyes lit up when he suggested we split a dessert!) There were only three options on the dessert menu- cheesecake, vanilla crème brulee and what was described as a chocolate “pate.” I’m sure you can guess what we ordered! The pate had the consistency and flavor of smooth semi-sweet chocolate fudge. It was topped, predictably, with whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

All in all, it was a great evening with a wonderful group of people. We were lucky to celebrate the day of our engagement with such good meal (thanks again to R & B for dinner!).

So, onto Sunday afternoon… the First Cheese in a Series of Cheeses. Deciding to try a new cheese every week might be a bit ambitious. Bi-Monthly Cheese perhaps?

The first cheese in my exploration of new and different cheeses is Grayson, made by Meadow Creek Dairy in southwest Virginia (shout out to the local cheese- woo).

It was a brand new cheese for the Whole Foods in Clarendon, straight from the farm as it finished aging in the last 1-2 weeks. The cheese monger described it as an American Taleggio.

Meadow Creek Dairy says: "Reminiscent of the Italian Taleggio or French Livarot, but with our rich Jersey milk and a longer aging time. A soft, finely textured cheese, very rich and beefy with a pungent aroma and a nutty, sweet overtone. Surface ripened with a thin reddish-orange washed rind."

For comparison purposes we also tried a traditional Taleggio. It probably wasn't the most scientific of processes. Who knows how long the Taleggio had aged, but I could see a few similarities. Also, I think we tried the Grayson a little too chilled (we were impatient to try it). Where it started out too mild for our tastes, the flavor intensified as it came to room temperature. Ultimately, I think we all preferred the Taleggio- but the Grayson is worth another try.