Thursday 21 April 2022

Midweek Munchies (Fine Cultures edition)

Being a vegan with a coconut fat intolerance, most of the abundance of artisan vegan cheeses are not an option for me. Vegan cheeses love being full of coconut oil, and I don't want to pay artisan vegan cheese prices to find out that I can't eat it without making me sick. Fine Cultures is a local vegan cheese company that is run by the same person who started the Vtopia cheese shop in Portland before they moved to the Gold Coast!! Of course, most of their cheeses are full of coconut oil, but there are a few that aren't.

The Smokey Cheddar and the Aged Black Garlic Cheddar are two of those cheeses!

Fine Cultures


The smokey cheddar is fairly soft, and has a slightly smokey taste... I could have done with more smoked. I used it to make a lot of toasted sandwiches. So enjoy a bunch of boring photos coming your way right now, starting with this one that had smokey cheddar, ham, and tomato jam.

FC Smokey Cheddary, ham, tomato jam toasty


And this one, that had smokey cheddar, ham, and cranberry sauce.

FC Smokey Cheddar, ham, cranberry sauce toastie


Finally this one, with smokey cheddar, apple slices, and tomato jam.

FC Black Garlic Cheddar, tomato jam, apple toastie


It was the aged black garlic cheddar that was the star for me. Again, it is fairly soft, but the flavour... oh the flavour. I don't know how to describe it. It doesn't hit you with a lot of garlic. What it does is serenade you with a deep, savoury, umami flavour that will just have you wanting more more more! Here is a very dull photo of the time I made some Ryvitas with it. Half with cheese, tomato jam, and apple slices, and the other half with cheese, avocado, and tomato. To be honest, I ate the rest of it in chunks on apple slices. I have another block of this in my fridge right now.

FC Black Garlic Cheddar on ryvitas


The other product I was keen to try was one of their vegan cream cheese, surprisingly coconut oil free. In particular, the bacon and spring onion cream cheese.

Fine Cultures Bacon and Spring Onion Cream Cheese


Despite my excitement, or perhaps because of it, this didn't quite live up to my hopes. It was fine, but I was really expecting to be blown away. I ate it a lot of ways, but here it is on some toast with avocado, tomato, cucumber, and dill.

Fine Cultures Bacon and Spring Onion Cream Cheese


Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Dim Sim


Me and Dim Sim, we should have been forever.

5 comments:

  1. I love to see a good grilled cheese! Glad you got some good sandwiches in.

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    1. As the weather gets cooler here, I am looking forward to making more.

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  2. These cheese flavours all look really fun! And you really made the most of them across your meals. It's been too long since I made a good apple/cheese dish.

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  3. Those Vegan Cheese sound like winners to me! I would totally try them!

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  4. I love it when cheeses serenade me. Most of mine aren't singers, sadly. Haha!

    That's too bad the cream cheese was underwhelming. It looks very promising in that jar!

    I hadn't realized that the person who started Vtopia moved to the Gold Coast. Very cool!

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