Learn Local Foods, Such as French Comte Cheese

French Comte cheese from La Fromagerie in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Learn local foods so in each country you visit you can ask for something you like when faced with a baffling menu and umpteen choices and you know little of the local language and cuisine.

From the cheese shop in London, La Fromagerie, near Madame Tussaud's by Baker Street, I have learned to like a French cheese called Comte. (There should be an acute or upwards accent on the e. To get the accent if you are typing and can't find an e with an accent,simply copy the word from elsewhere on the internet and if you can be bothered make the typeface or font fit the rest of your typing.)

Wiki reveals that the Comte cheese comes from the Comte region of France, to give it the full name -

Comté cheese - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Comté_cheese

Comté (or Gruyère de Comté) is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté traditional province of eastern France.

Comté is a hard cheese. If you don't like soft cheese, or you want some of each, ask for Comte.

Comte is the premier or popular French hard cheese, like the English Cheddar cheese, you see it everywhere, can get it everywhere.

In London, England, you can go to one of several speciality cheese shops, Paxton and Whitfield in Mayfair behind Fortnum and Mason's, and Neal's Yard in Borough Market and one called Rippon near Victoria station, another in Fulham. We choose La Fromagerie because you can sit and have coffee or a meal afterwards, and it is near Baker Street station which suits our travels.

La Fromagerie has three branches in Highbury, Marylebone and Bloomsbury.See previous post on this place. Fromage is French for cheese and fromagerie is a cheese shop.

Useful Websites

https://www.lafromagerie.co.uk/

visitbritain.com
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/comte-cheese-making-french-fromage-jura/

http://ee.france.fr/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Roquefort cheese - where from?

If you want to start a debate over a wine and cheese session you could ask people to tell you where they think the locally available cheese comes from. French hotels are famous for their extensive cheese boards. You may well be offered a choice from a two tier trolley with cow's cheese on one level and goat and sheep cheese on the other.

A recent debate ensued regarding the origin  of Roquefort. One person had driven through a place called Roquefort in France and assumed the cheese came from there. However, a Google search revealed that there are four or five places with Roquefort as all or part of their name, one south west, one south east.

The real Roquefort in a place with Roquefort as part of the name, because some king or other gave it the right to use the name.

Excuse me, just eating my Roquefort.

Fort - fort or strong.

Roque - sounds like rock, doesn't it!

Strong cheese. A blue sheep's cheese.

If you want French cheese in central London, you could go to a speciality shop such as Paxton and Whitfield or La Fromagerie. Alternatively try the deli department of a big store such as Fortnum's or Harrods.

More details from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquefort
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187149-d266702-Reviews-Roquefort_Cheese_Caves-Languedoc_Roussillon.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.