I don’t know about the rest of the food blogging community, but the Pillsbury Bake-off has always been a bit of perplexing event for me. One the one hand there’s a grand prize of $1m, on the other hand the winning contestants tend to heavily rely on pre-packaged ingredients like pie or biscuit dough.

So I this year, again, I consider entering–I can always use flour and one of the more natural ingredients. But I ask you this: will I lose all my food blogging street cred if I enter?

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While there were thousands of vendors at the Fancy Food Show, I spent the majority of my time sampling untold cheese varieties from dozens of domestic and European dairies.

My absolute favorite was the Amalattea Tenerina, a goat milk Riccota Salata. No salty or bitter aftertaste with this cheese. It is slightly sweet with hints of citrus and slightly more creamy than a cow’s milk version. In fact, the taste is reminiscent of my grandmother’s lemony rice pie. Unfortunately it won’t be available in the U.S. for another six months or so. I suppose I have no choice but to wait.  The company, which makes cheese exclusively from goat milk, produces several other varieties varying in age from one day to nearly a year old. The mozzarella was tasty too-neutral with a slight chevre taste. I’d be interested to try this on a veggie lasagana–as opposed to a meat one–as I think the flavors would blend nicely.

My other favorite cheese find was a new cow’s milk variety from Kerrygold–Dubliner with Irish Stout. It seems that it’s so new it’s not even listed on the website yet. It has the same nutty, robust base flavor as the Dubliner, but with a sweeter finishing taste.

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On my way to the Fancy Food Show today, and tomorrow is Food Fete — both here in SF. Look for posts all next week on new products, favorite tastes and even a few interviews.

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