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!



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.



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



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



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.



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.



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.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Me and Dim Sim, we should have been forever.