This past Tuesday I was invited to attend a food show. Now before you go thinking this is like a Food and Wine Festival, it’s not. It’s really just a place for purveyors to hock their wares to chefs and restaurant owners. Not only that but one of these shows will really showcase how much processed and packaged products we’re being served at most restaurants. But there are gems to be found in all the madness, and Moody Blue is probably the best food find in recent memory.
Moody Blue is a smoked blue cheese from Wisconsin based Roth Kase. It’s a deeply smoky flavored cheese with quite a bit of bite. It’s a powerful cheese, so if you’re not a lover of blue cheese you should be wary. But anyone with the slightest affinity for blue cheese owes it to themselves to pick up at least a wedge of the stuff.
While the smoky flavor is strong it’s also balanced. You’d expect a smoked cheese to have the typical wood smoked tones, but Moody Blue also brings a distinct nuttiness to the party. Toasted nuts are one of my favorite things to enjoy with regular blue cheese when just snacking, and Roth Kase has taken that natural pairing to a wonderful new level.
The cheese is creamy, making it a perfect application for spreading on crackers or using in a recipe. I’m going to try a Moody Blue cheese cake as soon as I can. A slice of that cheesecake topped with some preserved pears and toasted pecans might be heaven on a plate.
