If you love cheese, France is the perfect country to live in. You can see thousands (yeah, I guess I'm exaggerating) different kinds of cheese wherever you go (from supermarkets to restaurants). Is there any French who doesn't like cheese? (strangely, yes, haha, I've seen some. And there're some French who don't like even wine.... can you believe that?) Anyway, yes, I LOVE CHEESE - more accurately, I love good handcrafted cheese (No, don't get me wrong, I also like those factory-produced Camembert or Brie that you can buy from supermarket, and don't laugh, I also like Kiri ... if you consider it a kind of cheese).
When it comes to cheese, some people say "the smellier the better", yeah, maybe it's true, but I don't know, I like them all, I don't care about its smell.
There's this "Saturday morning market place" near to my house, and getting delicious fresh cheese from there is our weekly routine. (By the way, I find it really weird that they open this Les Halles only every "Saturday" mornings. Until last year, I thought it was an abandoned (but nicely maintained) building, located in the city center, which is actually wasting an expensive spot of the real estate market.)
So, here are some pictures of cheese I got last Saturday. We think these are the 'essential' ones that we try to have in our fridge all the time.
This is Comté and it's my favorite French cheese.
(You can see the side of the slice is not a fan-shape, well, it's because I had it right after we arrived home)
Comté is rather hard compared to other soft cheese, and it doesn't smell that much.
When you go to crémerie, you'll find they usually sell comté older than 12 months.
(and, generally, the older the more expensive)
I was looking for correct words that describe the taste of comté, and, strangely, I aways end up with thinking 'steamed chestnut' flavor (but without its sweetness). I know it's very strange description, so, just try it when you have a chance to find out its real taste by yourself.
This is Parmesan.
Well, we all know when we use Parmesan (right?).
This is Raclette cheese. People use this one when they make Raclette (well, the name of cheese already tells you where to use), however, we use it when we make Quesadilla - trust me, it really upgrades your Quesadilla!
(You can see we already nibbled some before we take a picture)
These two are called "fromage frais" which means 'fresh cheese'.
The first one is goat milk cheese, and the second one is cow milk cheese.
These are very soft and moist - which always reminds me tofu.
Goat milk cheese (fromage de chèvre) has its special smell and taste.
So, if you're not used to it, you might not like it at all.
(But once you like it, it's highly addictive)
This is feta (marinated in olive oil and some herbs) - an icing on the cake for your salad.
(Feta is originated from Greece, it's not French!)
+
and this is the last one!
Guess what it is!!!
Yup, it's not cheese. It's fresh butter - mmmmm, I love this butter.
(O sometimes shows his jealousy toward it, telling me it's "your beloved butter")
I read an article about nuts helping cholesterol on The New York Times few days ago (and here's the link for the article). Well, before I came to France, I've never worried (or even thought) about cholesterol, since I didn't enjoy red meat a lot and was not really hot about any high-cholesterol contained dishes. But an almost-five-year-long life in France have altered my daily nutrition completely; now I find myself spreading a chunk of butter on the toasted bread in the morning, preparing creamy pasta for lunch, and cooking strip steaks with butter for dinner (it is a miracle that I am still keeping my body in shape, but who knows what will happen if I keep on eating like this). Recently, O and I decided to eat healthier - meaning, more greens on the plate, using fresher ingredients, and (gradually) reducing the frequency of having red meat (O doesn't know about the last one yet haha). So, this 'snacking on some nuts everyday' thing sounded wonderful as a part of our healthy-eating plan. 
