The Cheese Shop

797 Military Road, Mosman
Monday - Wednesday, 8,30am -6pm; Thursday, 8.30am - 7pm; Friday, 8.30am - 6.30pm; Saturday, 8am-6pm; Sunday, 8.30am - 5pm

Do you see what I see?
Oh hells of yes sir, it's heaven. Heaven on a wooden paddle. And served with thinly sliced bread.

This place has been opened for over 30 years. And accordingly so, I say! The space is not overambitious nor at all showy. We spent some time looking at the small-but-still-impressive collection of jams, oils, dips, sweets, and dried fruity things. Stuff of the delicious kind.

However, my opinion, which rests upon the cheese counter, begs to differ regarding the size of things. Spanning near to the length of the shop's entirety, the feast with which the eyes are set to gaze upon almost send one into a dizzying daze. One cannot help but to notice the care in which this compendium is compiled: grouped countries, select regions, specific maturation periods, promised types, levels of intensity in flavour...the list could go on.

And we nearly missed out on the platter! With options of a local only or an international only selection from its library housed within the glass case we could not resist asking if we could have a combination of the two platters. Because, well, everyone needs to broaden their view of the world/cheesetopia. It exists...okay? I'm glad we agree.

Our eagerness paid off! The owner, a rather jolly woman of whom one could not be adverse to having as a benevolent aunt of sorts, appeared to notice our excitement (though, I can't imagine why!) and gave us what was an exceptional picking of cheeses. With great care, and the quiet but hardcore knowledge she seemed to possess, she informed us as to the order of which we should make our odyssey around the platter.

We were to start proceedings with the Piano Hill cheddar from Tasmania, a nice hard and intense nutty cheese that smacked of the Gruyère-style graininess of texture. This went, as did most, extremely well with the little triangular prism of quince on the platter. Next was to be the other domestic cheese supplied: the Signature Brie, again from Tasmania. Not really all that memorable but nevertheless it was enjoyably soft and subtly flavoured. The Dorset butter cheese from Austria that was to follow was probably my least favourite (read: not bad per se, but just not my cup of tea) - however it stands by the fact that I am terribly biased as I am not at all a fan of the Northern European cheeses and their strange rubbery texture they have going...I'm looking at you Jarlsberg. The Dolce Gorgonzola from Italy was an absolute stand-out. Not unsurprisingly, it was quite sweet and followed to be extraordinarily rich. Having been a lover of this type of cheese for some time now, this was definitely one of the better ones that I have sampled. Great, also, with the quince. The Stilton blue from England was deliciously...English. Full-bodied and not too overt in its complexities, the crumbly texture could be said to be near-perfect in my opinion. The last, and one which I think our wonderful lady of the cheese cabinet slipped in for us as an 'extra', was the Délice de Bourgogne triple-cream from France. A decadent, velvety-textured cheese that is extremely rich and which relies on the heavy, almost woody, back-flavour it gives as an afterthought.

And so on our way out, amidst the general shower of love and praise for this particular providore, we succumbed and bought some to take home. One has to support such fabulousness on multiple levels.

Do you think I have said enough? I think I love cheese just that little bit too much.