An Edam Cheese

Back in the heady days of summer my sister Anne-Marie was over from Holland. She had driven over and amongst the children had found room to tuck in some goodies for me.

There was a box full of beer - a mixture of de Koninck,Palm and Gouverneur. Sadly all the beer appears to have gone and the empties are now littering the cellar. There is a suspiscion that not all of them were drunk by me and the evil eye is being trained on eldest son who continues to plead ignorance.

There were also some packets of Stroopwafels. A peculiarly Dutch biscuit made from two thin rounds of waffle sandwiched around a layer of sticky treacle. They have that slight flavouring of cinnamon that the Dutch love so much. I don't think I had any. The packets were emptied by the kids before I had a chance to remember we had them. By way of compensation the kids gave me for my birthday a beautiful blue Delft china stroopwafel pot for when we next have them. In the meantime we are looking for somewhere to give it pride of place.

Finally I was given a round of proper Edam. I have been having it in my sandwiches for lunch ever since. Periodically I have to pare off another round of wax so I can get off a clean slice of cheese. The wax comes away like a giant yellow toenail. There is about another two weeks of it left.

As much as the taste of Edam is engrained in my half Dutch blood it will be good to have a change of cheese for my sandwiches. I am looking forward to getting stuck into the Garstang Blue that is lurking and waiting in the back of the fridge and then finishing off the Irish cheese.