Easy Cheese, Extra Sharp  $3.19 a can at WalMart.  Soft, tangy, fatty, bland, very salty aftertaste.  This cheese is 440 mg. sodium per 100 calories, 7 g of fat.  Made in New Jersey by Nabisco.  Pasteurized process cheese spread.  It actually does have cheddar cheese in it, and also whey and cream, and annatto for coloring.  “Made with real cheese,” it says on the can.  It is kind of nasty, the way it squeezes out like an orange worm onto the cracker, but I keep eating it.

Edam with Red Peppers $9.99 lb. at Grapevine, $2.60 for a small wedge. By Uniekaas. I had to buy this cheese because it was coming up on their invoice as "red hot Dutch balls." Edam comes in a ball shape, hence the "Dutch ball" name. This cheese is not your typical Edam; it is full of crushed red peppers. It's a strange mix. I didn't like it at first, but that didn't stop it from disappearing. The peppers overpower the cheese somewhat. It tastes like buttery Edam at first, and then the peppers creep up on you I tried to melt it and it works. I liked it melted.

Emmentaler, Cave Aged  $8.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $2.79 for a nice chunk. $10.99 at Central Market. This cheese was aged a year.  I think it’s Swiss.  It is the usual straw color and has a black wax rind.  They had it out on display in the store and I liked it a lot.  It has big fermentation holes, bigger than a nickel.  It is not too salty at all, creamy, but also kind of pasty and grainy, like flour.  It is definitely nutty and sweet.  It’s not too hard, and it’s also not so spongy like a new Swiss would be.  I tried some of this in the store and had to have it.  It’s not bitter and doesn’t make my ears itch. I tried this later from Central Market. I had forgotten what it was like and expected it to be like a Comté, but no. It was more like a Swiss Parmesan. One of the holes even had some white flecks like a Parmesan. It is nutty, salty, and crumbly, much like a Parmesan. The rind is dark brown and sticky. This is totally not what I expected. It tastes sweet because it only has 50 mg of sodium in it.  

Emmental, Swiss Emmental Wheel  $6.99 at Central Market, $3.29 for a huge hunk.  This cheese is light yellow, very mild, sweet, and nutty.  It is really sweet and would be good with fruit.  It has a medium-firm texture and a long-lasting taste, in spite of its blandness.  It is a good party cheese, except that it is so subtle, it might get lost. 

Emmentaler by Fair Oaks  An Emmentaler from Indiana! The wedge I have is coated in a thin orange wax on the rind. It is yellow- light orange with small eyes, scattered throughout—unlike its sister and sometimes doppelgänger, Swiss cheese. (My wedge was small and cut closer to the rind, so I never saw how large the holes got deep inside the cheese.) These Swisses share traits in that they both have roots in the same areas of Europe and they both have a distinct fruitiness. The Indiana Emmentaler boasts an extremely long and complex finish.  At the very end, a tiny flourish of salt and acidity pops up. The salt taste is surprising because the cheese is low in sodium. The Emmentaler I have is at a firm age, but when melted, it turns oozy and mild with flavors of sweet butter and mountain fruit. Enjoy with fruity reds or whites, with fruit, or melted in quiches, Panini, fondues, and French onion soup.

Emmenthal, kosher, $16.99 lb. at Pomegranate, $1.53 for a tiny scrap piece! Kosher under Kehilah Kashrus at Pomegranate, cholov yisroel, but this cheese comes in via Ermitage in northeastern France where the kosher version is certified by Rabbi S.A. Schlesinger of Strasbourg. It is cholov shamur in France. It is lightly nutty, sweet, floral, long-lasting, and has this kind of tingly funk on the finish that some customers not used to anything beyond mild Cheddar find disturbing or "stinky." It almost makes my ears itch, but not quite, and this just means that it is a proper mountain cheese. It is a little buttery and milky. Although (to me) it is mild, it has a lot of flavor that unfolds. It has big, really pretty holes that are larger than large grapes. Maybe the size of large olives. This cheese melted great in a fondue with other kosher mountain cheeses from Ermitage--Raclette, le Brouère, and Lomont. It is also nice with pears or dried figs. It is aged for at least six months because it is categorized as a "hard cheese" for kosher at Pomegranate and says so on the label, but it may be older than that even. Photo of Emmenthal

Epoisses  $13.99 for an 8 oz. or so round in a chipwood box at Grapevine.  Then I found it an hour later for $9.99 at Central Market, but the price went up. $12.99 for the same thing at Central market in 2004. http://www.fromage-epoisses.com Epoisses de Bourgogne has a strong, barny, earthy smell. The flavor is a mixture of salt, sweet, metallic and milky flavors.  It comes to room temperature quickly and is extremely runny.  I cut a piece from the round and it collapsed in 5 min.  It has a thick, very sticky, orange wrinkled rind on top and comes in a cupcake holder inside the chipwood box.  The paste is silky, gooey, and straw-colored.  At first, it stinks, but on second sniff, it is more of a woody smell.  It is very milky and creamy, tangy, salty, a little earthy, and slightly spicy.  This cheese from Grapevine was at its peak and was so delicious I could hardly quit eating it.  I tasted it with two red Burgundies and both were good for it.  The website on the cheese says that it is washed in a brine with some grain sometimes added that gives it color. The most recent Epoisses I bought was extremely sticky on top. It stinks really bad of dirt. I also tried the Mini-Epoisses, aka Trou du Cru, which is like Epoisses, but with more of a dirt taste since the rind is closer to the cheese. This cheese stinks, and not of stinky feet. It is more like a sewer or a drain system that is backed up. The dirt smell reminds me a little of cat food. This Epoisses is super ripe and really bitter and salty. I think it will be too much for any wine. It has a little bit of a chlorine aftertaste, which may be ammonia.

Erborinati di Pecora $30 lb. at Artisanal in NYC. $6 for a thin slice. i think this is from Piedmont. This cheese has a washed rind and is very soft. It really stinks. It is described as explosive, metallic, and unctuous. It is a light cream color with blue/green mold in tight marbling like a Gorgonzola. The rind looks a little orange, like a washed rind. It is extremely spicy. It burns my tongue. It is one of the sharpest blues I've had in a while. It is even burning my throat and I taste a lot of mold in my nose afterwards. It does taste metallic, now that I think about it. The sheep really shines through. The mold is crunchy at times, but the cheese is extremely creamy. It is an interesting cheese, but definitely needs some bread with it since it's so strong. It is making me cough. It looks a Taleggio on the outside, or a Gorgonzola dolce. The rind is orange and runny, and the paste is dark cram-colored. THe mold is marbled and all mashed up in the center. It is very strong and spicy. Very spicy finish.  "I think I'm getting a buzz," Patrick says.

Erin Gold, Irish-style  $6.79 lb. at Central Market, $2.44 for a nice slice.  It is the color and texture of gouda.  It comes with green wax around it.  It is almost St. Patrick’s day, so they are selling it for that reason.  I’ve never seen it before.

Ewe's Blue by Old Chatham Sheepherding $22 lb. at Citarella, $6 for a medium-to-small wedge. This is a sheeps's milk cheese from New York State made with pasteurized milk, rennet, and penicillium roqueforti. Irv sold me this cheese at the 6th Ave. location. It comes wrapped in silver foil with a green label on top. On the label is a black sheep. It is ivory-colored with not so much veining. The blue is blue and grey with a touch of green. It stays about the same color all the way to the rind since it is covered in foil. It smells fruity, like apples and grapes. It is very soft and spreadable. On the palate, sweet and milky, but then with some sharpness in the blue and a sheepy, animaly (read: vomit) finish in the back of the throat. I don't know how else to describe this one sheep taste, but that's it. It is not unpleasant. A little sour and most definitely fruity. It's a very easygoing cheese and it is just begging for some fresh fruit and crusty French bread. This is 100% a party cheese. It won't scare off people who usually don't like blues, but it has enough going on to keep blue fans engaged. The texture is gorgeous. It's soft and creamy, but not all sticky and gooey. It is almost pillowy and light on the palate. It feels like drinking thick cream instead of eating, but since it isn't sticky, it doesn't weigh down the palate. Photo of Ewe's Blue  

Ewephoria  $14.98 at Zabar's, $5.24 for a big slab. This cheese is all sheep's milk, aged in a Gouda style, imported from Holland. It is made with pasteurized sheep's milk and is vegetarian, based on vegetable rennet. It has 190mg of sodium per ounce. This cheese comes from Dutch-owned Cheeseland in Washington State. I have always loved this cheese, partly for its flavor and partly for its decorative rind. This one has a purple, mustard yellow, and dark orange them and has patterns like Dutch dishware. I don't know how old the cheese is, but it is dark cream-colored in the center, and gets really dark, almost khaki, towards the edge. I can see evidence of crystallized amino acids in it, so it will have a little crunch. The texture is good. It can slice, but it also can break away. However, when it does, you can smash down the pieces of cheese like you would a soft cookie. Wonderful, deep flavor. There are caramel notes in this cheese, and a flavor of something almost burnt, like a creme caramel and maybe even bacon or prosciutto. It is a smoky, savory, umami flavor, but it is not a smoked cheese. The salt is not overbearing at all. It is very well-balanced and tastes to me exactly like what I like an aged Dutch cheese to be. The sheep aspect of it, I think, comes out in the cheese's sweetness and nuttiness. It is also slightly oily. Zabar's describes it as a sharp cheese, but I don't think it is. This is almost a cheese that you would drink with some whisky, though I hate whisky. Photo of Ewephoria 

Explorateur  Fromagerie du Petit-Morin.  $7 for a 3 ½ inch round (4 oz.) at Grapevine.  It is a new variety of cheese, invented in the 1960’s.  It has a rocket ship on the label.  It is a triple crème 75% m.g. cheese, small round of Brie-looking cheese.  The label is a circle on top and the white mold of the crust has flowered up onto the label.  It is pretty nasty-looking.  I asked the girl if that was ok, and she said yes, that’s where all the flavor is.  When you take the label off, the part underneath is brown.  I hope that’s ok.  The cheese is very creamy and kind of young-tasting on the inside, but with a little bitterness.  I suppose it’s so creamy because it’s a triple cream.  The crust is thick, pungent, and even a little bitter at times, musky.  Chewy, too.  I like it.  It is kind of expensive, though, for what it is.  The book says that it has a “lactic tang,” though I think this was a bit past the tangy stage.      

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