People often ask me about the cheeses I buy at Trader Joe’s, the emporium famous for its bargains. Alas, the list is short. I buy my feta there—the store’s private-label Greek feta is excellent—but I’m rarely tempted by anything else in the cheese department. The crackers, however! I have fallen hard for TJ’s seedy Norwegian crispbread. These crunchy, grainy flatbreads are so good with fresh, spreadable cheeses—whipped feta, for one—and they make it easy to produce a platter of colorful crostini in minutes.
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Left to right: Piave Vecchio, Taleggio, La Dama Sagrada, Point Reyes Toma, Bleu d’Auvergne
Seems like everything’s going up but the stock market. My neighborhood bakery just hiked the price of my favorite loaf by 33 percent. Ouch. That’s serious inflation. Cheese is hardly immune, and the stresses in the grain market guarantee more sticker shock to come. We cheese lovers just have to shop smarter. The values are out there. I’ve rounded up a few well-priced favorites for these inflationary times. There aren’t many cheeses that make me think “Is that all?” when I see what I’ve spent, but these dozen do.
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