Apocalypse is coming! Japan wins Swiss Cheese Olympics

[Taro Toporific]

First the Japan wins the world whisky challenge and now Japan's formerly worst-on-the-planet cheese beats the Swiss. The Apocalypse is coming!

Japan wins Swiss cheese prize
ABC Online Oct 31
A Japanese cheese has won the gold medal at the third Mountain Cheese Olympics in Switzerland, the organiser said.
The cheese called 'Sakura' won the highest prize in the section for the flavour of soft cheese. It is the first time a Japanese cheese has won the gold at the Olympics in Appenzell in the eastern region of the country. ...more...

[tetsujin gaijin]

Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!

[Taro Toporific]

After reading about this Japanese cheesemaker's methods, it makes me want to try some of this award-wining Sakura-cherry cheese.

Hokkaido master succeeds in creating a distinctly Japanese cheese
Asahi.com, July 2
....inspiration for producing a distinctively Japanese cheese.... The method he hit upon was to ripen the cheese on cherry tree leaves, adding pickled cherry blossoms to produce a white mold cheese he promptly dubbed "Sakura"-cherry blossom.
He entered this cheese in the second Mountain Cheese Olympics in 2003, held in a small town in eastern France. ...It had won the silver medal in the fragrant soft cheese category...Last October, Sakura cheese distinguished itself again, winning a gold medal and also the grand prix for soft cheese at the third Mountain Cheese Olympics in Switzerland.

Here's a website selling a 4-pack (550g) of the cheese for 4,935yen.

[Blah Pete]

And they still only sell crappy processed cheese at the supermarkets.

[Tsuru]

Even the price seems quite feasible to me actually... especially for what is to be considered a world class soft cheese. Think I'll give it a try when I get back.

[Greji]

And they still only sell crappy processed cheese at the supermarkets.

I was once told by the Ag Attach at the French Embassy that the Strict Health and Quarantine restrictions prevented the import of the best cheeses. They could not pass the bacteriological tests for food imports. Only the processed types could get in.