Goodness, it’s been a bit since we’ve done a cheese review, hasn’t it? We just haven’t seen any new cheeses in Austria that were worth trying. That changed today in Venice when we were looking for some suppery foods at the grocery store. We came across these weird cheese cubes called Grana Padano (in Bocconconi). We sure hope the “in Bocconconi” part means “in cubes”. Being curious, and thinking that the bag was only 3 Euro, we bought them. It turned out that the bag was 8 Euro. Well, it had better be good cheese!
Fortunately, it is. It’s a very hard, dry cheese. It’s got a crumbly dry texture, which while not displeasing in the least, does warrant having some sort of drink with the cheese. The taste is a standard sharp variety, as would be expected from a hard cheese. It is unique in that there is a moment of just the slightest sweetness while you’re chewing the cheese. It’s really very nice.
Verdict: worth trying, but probably too expensive to eat all the time. That might just be a side effect of getting it in Venice though. A normal town might sell this same cheese for much less!
Mmmm, this review makes me want to go out and buy a brick of cheese.