32 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
Phone 0466 406 404
Looking for something to do on a Friday night? Creperie Le Triskel, apart from offering some pretty fantastic French galettes, crepes and breakfast tartines, is now also doing a cheese tasting night. Kicking off at 6pm, grab yourself a bottle of whatever is on offer – in this case a flinty Gilbert Picq Chablis – a couple of slices of Noisette bread and plonk yourself down for some fine fromage.
We started off with a Gruyere from Switzerald, a hard cooked yellow cheese made from cow’s milk. It has a slighty sweet and nutty flavour which is perfect for baking or melting, but at room temperature it is deliciously earthy. Apparently it takes about 800 litres of cow milk to make an 80kg round of Gruyere, and about two seconds for me to eat it 
We then moved to the Caprifeuille, a superb white mold goats cheese that has me salivating just thinking about it. The ivory discs have a heart of snowy white (a sign of the aging process) and is tangy and mildly goaty (not as sharp as a Chevre for instance). Le Triskel also serves this on top of one of their savoury galettes, drizzled with honey and pinenuts. A perfect combination.
The Onetik Ossan Irarty is apparently a bit of a rarity – a semi hard ewes milk cheese that is utterly addictive. It hails from the south-west of France from sheep who graze the mountain pastures of Pays Basque in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département. The natural rind adds to the flavour – so please, don’t leave it behind!
Last but not least was the Fourme D’Ambert AOC, a beautiful soft blue cow cheese that dates back to Roman times (the technique, not the actual cheese). The cheese is innoculated with penicillium roqueforti spores, and injected with Vouvray moelleux, a sweet white wine, on a weekly basis till maturation. With some of that figgy jam on the side, wow…what an awesome combination.
Then if you so desire (…and desire we did), finish with a sweet crepe. A perfect way to wind down after the working week.
Oh cheese, wonderful gooey creamy fattening cheese. I love cheese in all forms and from diverse sources. Your descriptions are wonderful and I can almost taste the cheese while reading them. I definitely need to make a trip down Hardware Lane
oh…my…god. I’ve been to Le Triskel once before. My crepe was great, but my dining partner wasn’t as impressed. But how can you go wrong with a cheese platter?
Hi Maria – hmm…I see you share the same appreciation! I too salivated when I thought/wrote about the Caprifeuille. That stuff is just awesome!
Hey estelle – I’m with you. The only time a cheese platter can be wrong is when it’s cubes of coon toothpicked to spam or cabana. eww
I heart spam *sniffle*
:p
You sad, sad man ;-p
Don’t worry…I’ll still love you in the morning. Just make sure you brush your teeth afterwards AND rinse your mouth out with Listerine. The really really powerful one.