I’d like to take a moment to talk about that most under-appreciated of the Great Ten foods: cheese. (The Great Ten are, of course, pizza, steak, berries, shrimp, rolls, pie, enchiladas, hot chicken salad, chicken fried steak, and cheese.) Cheese has an excellent flavor, but it is often ignored because it is not a main course (at least not usually) or a healthy side.
It’s true, cheese is not those things, but it deserves its place in the Great Ten because cheese not only is delicious on its own, but also helps to make any dish even more delectable. Cheese takes ordinary chips and makes them extraordinary. Cheese can make inedible vegetables a delight to eat. Cheese makes pizza great, and when even more cheese is added to pizza, cheese can give pizza a brand new pizazz.
Not only is cheese the universal garnish and special ingredient, but cheese is also the food of the everyman. Steaks can be expensive and shrimp is only found in some restaurants, but cheese is universal. Cheese can be found anywhere, and in an almost unlimited selection. Cheeses range from the exquisitely expensive French cheeses with a taste so refined it is either completely bland or so sharp you could cut yourself on it, to middle class cheeses like Colby Jack or Muenster whose flavors are clear and to the point, all the way down to the pale, plastic, pathetic imitation cheeses they sell to uneducated tourists and health nuts.
Cheese is for all times and seasons, and there is a cheese for every occasion. Everyone, from the Big Cheese on down, should sing the praises of greasy, squeaky, stringy, highly flavored and greatly textured, beautiful, fabulous cheese!
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