It's almost impossible to think about Amsterdam without relating it to the infamous Coffee Shops doting the city and the buzzing Red Light Area. However, this bicycle city is also famous for numerous other things, one of them being its spectacular offering of dutch cheeses.
I reached Amsterdam Centraal at around 1pm to be greeted by a much grey sky and slight drizzle. On stepping out of the station, I saw dozens and dozens of cycles parked in an orderly mess, giving the vibes of a crammed, unorderly city. I instantly started having doubts about what this famous city had in store for me.
It was as if I had judged too soon and Amsterdam had caught on my sullen vibe, for while I was walking towards my hostel, the sky suddenly cleared and gave way to pristine blue views and beautiful sunlight. My mood became lighter, and with renewed enthusiasm and a map in my hand I'd already started making mental notes of places to visit after dropping off my luggage at the conveniently located hostel.
There were so many things to see, but maybe it was hunger or my sheer love for milk and milk products, that I decided to visit the Amsterdam Cheese Museum first.
There was no unnecessary jazz in marketing this charming little cheese heaven and it could've been an easy miss. On entering, I was greeted by rows upon rows and shelves upon shelves of colourful cheeses beautifully displayed along with small bowls kept besides each variety filled with cheese samples for visitors to taste.
I felt like an excited kid in candyland in front of all those cheeses as I sheepishly began tasting, trying hard to discern my favourite. Oh what a tough task it was!
The most famous and the most produced cheese in Netherlands is Gouda (small round cheese encased in red/yellow wax) followed by Edam, so it wasn't surprising to see more than 90% of the cheeses on display as different varieties of Gouda - young, mature, aged and with flavours you could only imagine like beer, cumin seeds, pine nuts, beetroot and sundried tomatoes, truffles, spinach and basil, lavender and blueberry, and the list can go on and on.
Leaving just one or two, I liked most of them for their bright flavours, the top contenders being the lip smacking young gouda filled with fresh truffles and gouda made with a mix of cow and goat milk. I had to put the delicious confusion of which cheese to buy on hold for a while, as I along with some other visitors in the store were guided to the basement-turned-tiny-cheese-museum of the shop where we witnessed a lovely old school set up of cheese making tools and equipments.
While most of the modern cheesemakers have started using various degrees of automation in their day-to-day operations, a typical day in the life of a traditional cheesemaker goes something like this: Wake up at 4 am, milk the animals by hand, heat the milk in a large copper vats and curdle it using a suitable culture or enzyme, set the curds in moulds, monitor the previously made cheese left for aging, (sometimes) followed by a second round of evening milking and ending the long laborious day only after having taken care of the animals and their daily needs.
I think I was just too engrossed in reading the details and listening to our cheese expert explain the time consuming and laborious cheese making process, that I missed clicking pictures except for the world's most expensive cheese slicer priced at a whopping €25,000! (WOW)
The one on display is in fact a replica made with 888 stunning Swarovski crystals, the original one with 220 Gassan Diamonds already stolen in 2015. Talk about slicing the humble cheese in style!
Since I was being all touristy anyway, I also posed with a cheese wheel in front of the VR machine (I think that's what it was!) and emailed myself this little souvenir you see below. This little activity triggered another desire in me, to go a traditional cheesemaking hut somewhere in the Alpine mountain ranges and spend a day or two making my own cheese wheel! :D
Well one day!!
Till then, I shall happily relish the delicious offerings of such speciality cheese shops and wholeheartedly thank and bless the genius cheesemakers who invented these dairy marvels after hours of toiling in their picturesque mountainside abodes! Read more about Dutch cheese here and here Check this out: Amsterdam Cheese Museum website Shelter City Hostel website #thatsthestory
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