Showing posts with label goat cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goat cheese. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Honey, Bees, and Outdoor Dinner at Fairmont Newport

It's a little known fact that some of the Fairmont hotels have started honey bee hives on their rooftops, wherever it was possible. This has included the Fairmont in Newport Beach, Seattle, and San Francisco (where you can also try the honey beers made by a local brewery with their honey). I was invited to a dinner at Fairmont Newport a few months ago and got to check out the rooftop bees with a view of the sunset! The hives at Fairmont Newport and maintained and harvested with the help of Backyard Bees.

Rooftop bee hives
We had a honey tasting in the small room on the rooftop. Little did I know just how different honey can taste, until you compare two side by side. The black pan was harvested from these hives in June. This early summer honey is more floral than the August harvest. Both of them were excellent, by the way, and I'm glad they gave us a little jar to take home.
After some cocktails and arancini, we had an al fresco dinner in their beautiful garden, a picture perfect spot for a small wedding with the white gazebo in the back.

Fairmont Newport

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Product Review: Ile de France Goat Cheese

A few months ago I reviewed a sample of the brie cheese from Ile de France, and since I absolutely loved it, I wasn't about to turn down their sample of goat cheese. The package that was chilled with a couple of ice packs contained La Buchette, their 10.5 oz pack of the plain goat cheese (they also sell ones flavored with herbs).
Since I was out of town, I got to the package a day late but thankfully the ice packs still kept it cool.

When I first opened it, the cheese was so soft and creamy and spread very easily on crackers. The cheese was smooth and rich, slightly salty and had a -- interestingly -- slightly tart flavor to it. This surprised me at first but then I grew to really like it. I loved it paired with some sweet fruits.

You can chill the goat cheese to get it firm and crumbly to sprinkle it on your salad (or your beets, naturally!)

For me, I enjoyed most of mine spread over crackers with a side of champagne grapes.

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