June 17, 2010
“Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese..." --Robert Louis Stevenson
Soon, our young friends Philipp and Mirjam, who are visiting from Switzerland, will return to their home country. There, they worry that they will be dreaming non-stop of Cheddar cheese. Yes, Cheddar cheese.
Why?
Because, and this was a surprise to me, there is no Cheddar cheese in Switzerland!
No macaroni and cheese, nacho cheese, grated yellow cheese on tacos and pizzas, cheese and potato casseroles, or anything else that requires Cheddar.
No aged, sharp Cheddar and no medium-to-sharp yellow melting cheese.
Cheddar cannot be found although Gruyere and Emmenthal are abundant.
It goes without saying that Switzerland is famous for its "Swiss" cheese and also for its world-renowned chocolate.
However, Mirjam and Philipp would agree with American actress Amanda Peet who once remarked, "If I had to give up cheese or chocolate, I'd give up chocolate in a heartbeat."
Mirjam and Philipp prefer Cheddar cheese any old day to chocolate, even though they live in "the land of chocolate".
Macaroni and cheese is their favorite American cheese dish, so I made sure they had the old-fashioned kind our grandmothers used to make. Macaroni and cheese baked with milk and butter and Cheddar in a casserole dish with bread crumbs sprinkled on top.
True American-style mac 'n' cheese.
Philipp and Mirjam loved it and sighed as they ate, humming with pleasure and savoring every bite, all-the-while knowing that there would be no mac 'n' cheese once home in Switzerland.
We began to plot ways to remedy that problem.
We wondered if we could send the cheese powder from the "blue boxes" of mac 'n' cheese or send small microwavable bowls of Easy Mac through the U.S. Postal Service. Or, could Philipp and Mirjam take some home in their suitcases and make it through customs?
We pondered all these heavy thoughts and struck up a deal.
We must go visit them in Switzerland to try their delectable Swiss chocolate in person since the chocolate they brought us melted in their rental car.
They, in turn, must come back again to satisfy their longing for Cheddar cheese.
And so we said our good-byes as the time came for them to leave and head west on their coast-to-coast road trip. Their mission is to experience "real" America and its people and to eat a lot of regional dishes made with Cheddar cheese.
As they drove away, we could hear them saying, "We love America and mac 'n' cheese"!
Ya gotta love it!
