Cheese From Spain + Murray's Cheese = Pure Joy

Last week Cheese From Spain hosted a media cheese tasting at Murray's Cheese Bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Unable to attend, my colleague forwarded me the invitation noting that since it was 'my area of expertise' and that I 'really enjoy cheese,' I should RSVP. Which I was glad he suggested because now that I knew this was going down I was going to have to 1) snag an invite; 2) crash it... and that would have been awkward. (Do we need to go over the absurdity of my cheese obsession? I am pretty sure I have mentioned it in almost every entry on this blog: Hmmm... yep, mentioned Murray's in Showing Local Some Love; Trader Joe's cheese reference in A Wegmans Letdown; managed to fit in a written-moan over cheese in a produce-oriented entry, A Veggie Affair; and basically confessed to seeing nothing but the cheese dept during my visit to Mariano's in The Big Cheese of Service.) Anywaaaaaaay... Cheese From Spain.... right, back to it. The invitation said cheese tasting, so I arrived at an adequate level of hunger for just that, some cheese tasting. The event, however, was a four-course meal incorporating the featured Spanish cheeses in different dishes, all created by the amazing chefs and cheesemongers at Murray's personally for us. Basically enough food to feed all two dozen of us four times over and send us all home with doggie bags. But I'll let the photos do the talking (don't mind the mood lighting)... To begin, a cheesemonger from Murray's came out to talk us through the cheese platter. Yep, it was big enough it needed talking through. This is about half of it: Then we had an amazing "Autumn Salad" that I did not photograph but you can read about it on the menu: Following that we had the most mouth-watering Mac & Cheese on the planet changing my idea of comfort food forever. It was made with three kinds of Idiazabal, which we tasted during the first-course cheese platter; they are slight smokey and soft. They mixed that up with Mahon - something similar to Manchego - and baked it with Duck Confit, topped with crackling. As a rule, I don't eat duck, but I mean... well... need I explain why I had three servings of this? At this point I could have left a happy girl, but there was one more course... Murray's just-for-us version of a cheese steak. Beef Tenderloin, brioche crouton, Valdeon Sauce, pickle chestnuts (and mushrooms but I hate mushrooms and didn't eat them so I am excluding them from the description). No words. Murray's is one of my happy places. To emphasize that, I have been back twice in the last week and a half... Once to the Cheese Bar for a girls' night dinner date where I had the Murray's Cheeseburger, described as: Ottomanelli Brother’s grass fed-beef on brioche with hand-cut fries and Rarebit Cheddar Sauce. (I could had drank that sauce by the pint.) ... and for dessert we shared goat's milk cheesecake with a fig crust: My second trip back this weekend was to the cheese shop with some visiting friends, where I unnecessarily purchased some Flory's Truckle from Milton Creamery in Missouri. I did absolutely nothing to hide my cheese obsession as I leaned on the counter drooling on the glass, tasting everything the cheesemonger pointed to. She was a genius and clearly recognized me as a strong candidate for a strategic upsell and offered us "one last sample" of the cheddar I purchased with a dash of Strawberry Balsamic Jam on top... I bet you are wondering if I bought it. I'll let my dinner from last night answer that question... Note: I ate the cheese and jam combo atop 34 Degrees Poppy Seed Savory Crisps. These crisps were made to have cheese on top; they somehow become one with the cheese making each bite taste like a piece of slightly crunchy cheese. (I am not sure if that is a great description so I am just gonna say you should try it.) In my stomach's opinion, this past week a half was basically the best ten days I've had all year! Thanks Cheese From Spain and Murray's!