I'm up here in NYC at the Fancy Food Show. I have had some trouble with the internet, but many many wonderful cheeses to write about! And some wine here and there.

So far, I have been very excited about an aged sheep's milk cheese with truffles called La Rustichella ai Tartufi (I think). It's from Italy. I don't know where. Probably the north. It's a very new product at Atalanta. It looks like a small Parmigiano Reggiano, but with veins of black truffles and some pockets where the truffles actually ooze out. Also exciting at the Atalanta table was a cheese called Ciok that has been ripened in grape musts. I got to talk to the cheesemaker at Il Forteto in Tuscany.

I also got to go to a Crystal reception, huge importer outside of Boston. THey had a fantastic Burrata at their booth plus a huge cheese layout at their reception.

Ike from Grapevine Market in Austin (http://www.grapevinemarket.com) is at the show and we hung out for a bit.

I had a great Azeitao at the Crystal booth. I also got to talk to Giovanni Fiori, author of a book only in Italian called I Formaggi Italiani. He is with Guffanti.

European Imports had a nice booth/neighborhood/cafe staked out. I got to try some fantastic French cheeses and fun Australian pasta.

I met the people from Murray's cheese last night and Ideal cheese. I am going to visit those shops tomorrow once this show is over.

I also got to go to Picholine and see Max McCalman. He is the cheese guru at the restaurant. He pushes a strong-smelling cheese cart around and serves up cheese plates, along with aging the cheeses at their cheese center. I don't have time to write about all these interesting cheese people I've met, but maybe later.

Cheeseland booth -- wonderful new sheep's milk called Ewephoria.

Lots of Italian being spoken here.

OK, that's it for now. More entries to come.

The Cheese Mistress
http://www.cheesemistress.com

I hung out with Mark and Job from Cheeseland today. Pics to come! I got three free aprons for their wonderful Prima Donna cheese and then a "dummy" wheel of Old Amsterdam aged gouda. Tonight we are having dinner with the Old Amsterdam crew.

I already love Old Amsterdam, but in the Dutch vein, I tried many other cheeses from Holland over at Cheeseland. One of my favorites is the Ewephoria sheep's milk cheese. They have a young and an aged version, and both are exceptional.

Beemster, another Dutch company, gave me a free Beemster double handled cheese knife plus some little squeaky mouse keychains and a toy 18 wheeler truck. Apparently I have competition -- a certain Captain Kaas from Holland (kaas = cheese in Dutch) who is also blond and, from what I hear, has really built up arms. We are going to have to have a showdown -- Cheese Mistress and Captain Kaas.

The Cheese Mistress
http://www.cheesemistress.com