Cheesiness

From the title, i imagine, most of you are probably expecting a long and in-depth rant about me attempting to educate the Americans in the ways of pop music beyond Britney Spears (as far as people are concerned here, Kylie had one hit in the 80s and then promptly disappeared for 15 years). Anyway, fear not, for Steps will be mentioned no more (at least in this post). Rather, it's back to a subject close to all Southerners hearts - food. Primarily, as you've probably now guessed, cheese. Now, i like cheese although i try not to eat it too much - the fat content is often enough to get my arteries constricting in horror. Being from Yorkshire as well, i have been bought up with Wensleysdale which is, quite frankly, the best cheese in the world. Thankfully, i've managed to find a store here that sells it - both with and without cranberries in. Although it's a bit on the expensive side, i don't mind at all - it's worth it for a taste of home. As with the beer, i've also been spreading the word here - i think i should ask for commision, the number of people i've got hooked on the stuff.

Anyway, my attempts to keep my cheese intake to a healthy level have been somewhat thwarted by the fact that nearly everything on sale here (in restaurants, mind you) is usually sprinkled liberally (often excessively) with cheese (Sarah, you'd be in paradise!). Last week, we headed to a nice cafe near here (Wickliffe house - i'll take you there if you ask nicely) that does fantastic salads (the seared tuna salad is heaven). Good for the health conscious, you'd think, except underneath the tuna and the first layer of lettuce is a mountain of grated cheese. Same with the Cobb salad (which has to be the most unhealthy salad i've seen - blue cheese, bacon, avocado) and pretty much every salad i've had here. It's the same with sandwiches. Ask for them to remove it and you are fixed with a look that says "are you crazy" which does make me wonder that, if they removed the cheese, would it taste like sawdust or something? I've yet to risk it. I'm just waiting for the occasion where I ask for a bowl of cereal and it comes with half a pound of grated cheddar on.