Can I get some creme with this Fraiche?
Isn’t that pretty? Awesome pal Sam and I went to fancy-pants Fraiche in Culver City last night. It was delightful, de-lovely, and delicious, especially with Sam’s big, bold bottle of Turley zinfandel. (Sorry I cheated on you, vodka, but that wine had great legs).
We shared a burrata and speck appetizer, with a drizzle of balsamic that contrasted beautifully with the silky mildness of the cheese. For our meals, we shared monkfish “Francaise” and fork-tender braised beef short ribs on a pillow of buttery polenta.
For dessert, fromage:
I nicked this pretty pic from an Aussie. Oi oi oi!
Fraiche may mean ‘fresh’ en Francais, but these people are serious about their moldy milk. Two of our 3 cheeses were perfection, but the brie — EW. I know you can’t call yourself a foodie if you loathe salmon (me) and stinky cheese (that’s me, too), but there are some pungent cheeses that all the butterfat in the world can’t convince me to eat.
In the same way that I won’t eat that week-old Chinese in my fridge because my nose tells me that I shouldn’t, I can’t eat something that smells like a Frenchman marinated his feet in it for a week or two. Just can’t. So I guess Chester Cheetah was right. It ain’t easy, being cheesy. And… scene.
Thanks for all your awesome cheat day comments! You kids have given your Mother a LOT of foods for thought. Keep ‘em coming!
Oh Debra – you disappoint me. The stinkier the cheese the better. Mais oui ma cheri! The speck and burrata description made my mouth water. Yum.
i know, my beautiful friend! oh the SHAME. perhaps i should go to france — you know, on some type of river transport, like a lazy barge — and further my stinky cheese education. i feel confident that under those circumstances, my shameful condition could be remedied. we’ll call it aversion therapy. now when do we leave?
Hehe, talk about fighting fire with fire. Do go to France if you want to experience REAL stinky cheese. The US pasteurized version of French cheese is hardly acceptable in the eyes of most French natives
ha! i thought you might get a kick (or a sniff!) out of this post, ma belle. i feel very lucky to have sampled french stinky cheeses, en france. one muenster from a market in le havre particularly stands out.
call me a philistine if you must, but i ate that cheese on my hotel room balcony whilst holding my nose and cursing the budgetary limitations that forced me to finish it. stinky cheese, vous n’etes pas pour moi!
Haha! I’m sure it partly made you the woman you are today (what doesn’t kill you…)
I have to say you really went for it by picking the muenster…!
I think you shouldn’t write a self-help book after all… I want to read your memoir!!
I Love Fraiche!
me too! i miss you, beauty! come back and we’ll go to fraiche for blood-orange martinis and burrata.