Pine Cone

Cheese here in NZ is (on the whole) rubbish compared to UK. There are one or two decent cheese producers here such as Kapiti, but the cost of a teeny-weeny little block of proper mature cheddar, real goat/sheep milk feta or a ball of proper mozarella is enough to completely blow the weekly food budget, if you can find any at all. So this got me wondering.....is the cheese (on the whole) any better in Oz, or can I continue to assume to most cheeses away from Europe are not that great

roaringmouse

There's some quite good cheese produced in Tasmania.

DeadVim

I ain't picky, I go with Nimbin ... makes me strangely drowsy though.

Go the Coon if you have rellies from the UK coming over though.

moonsurfer

I'd agree with that and give them a laugh at the same time.

Coon Swiss is actually pretty tasty on toasted sandwiches. The Tasmanian brie and camembert is good too. Australian cheese may not be as good or extensive as in the UK - and it isn't - but it's not awful either.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Unless its called 'Tasty'

DeadVim

I think this place should produce some ... http://www.yorkeysknob.com/

Pine Cone

Yes, they have that here too. First time I picked up a block of 'Tasty' cheese I got all excited thinking it would be something like mature cheddar. How wrong I was! It was more like slightly acidic tasting cheesy-rubber.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

yep that's the stuff... we should be able to do them under the Trades Descriptions Act.

Deancm_MKII

Yes, continue to assume that all cheese away from Europe is crap because it is.

Even the good ones that try to emulate the European cheeses aren't in the same league.

Butter is crap in Oz as well, although you can get Lurpak now but pay twice the price for it.

littda01

Get yourself to a decent deli and there's plenty of good cheese. I've been here 2 weeks and bought plenty good cheddar at delis in Prahran market. Greek cheeses also available, as you'd expect.

Does seem to be less variety on the whole than in the UK, but tbh you have to shop pretty carefully in the UK also as much of its crap.

Deancm_MKII

I've had plenty of cheese from Prahran market and no, it's not even in the same league as the cheese I used to buy at Borough Market in London.

Pollyana

Ahhh beautiful, a cheese thread to wake up too


Its a lot harder to find decent stuff here though, and you have to be prepared tio search for it, nowhere near as readily available as back home. Tassie cheese is worth searching for, and there are a few others like Kenilworth, but general, cheap, supermarket stuff is trash. How ever they get away with calling that rubbery stuff "tasty"without being done under trade descriptions, as Creature says, I will never know
I used to eat a lot of unpasteurised farm cheeses with superb flavours like horseradish, and you just can't get those here

I had some really strong vintage chedder last week, very small piece, very expensive. Someone at work tried it and reckoned I should get a refund as there was obviously something wrong with it, the flavour was too strong

Pine Cone

Sounds like Oz and NZ are pretty similar in that respect then. Last Christmas we bought some Camembert and Brie, and both ended up tasting pretty much the same. I mean, they were both OK in a creamy cheese melted in a baguette sort of way and perfectly edible but the cheeses here just don't have the distinct flavours of European cheeses.

I'm not necessarily interesting in replicating identical cheese we are used to from UK, but it would be nice if there was more distinct variety in locally produced cheese. Next time we go back and visit the rellies, we'll definitely be having a cheese fest!

I wonder if we perceive this as an issue because we are used to stronger flavours in UK/Europe? For example when ordering a curry in NZ, you often get asked whether you want the food 'Kiwi hot' (mild), authentic 'Indian Hot' (medium) or 'British hot' (hot).

Deancm_MKII

I think it is becaue we are actually just used to flavour.

littda01

I wasn't really comparing it to that TBH, I was thinking more of what you get at Waitrose etc. What I have had so far certainly compares reasonably to that, though less choice. The supermarket stuff is rubbish I agree.

So I would agree definitely worse cheese in Aus on the whole, but decent stuff is available if you look for it and tbh in the shopping basket its far from the most important item :-) (the quality of meat, fruit and veggies in Aus seems markedly higher and more worried about those)