Apr 12

Apr 12 Flower Cheese

Cheesy Tuesday continues with a special Greek - or should that be Corfiot - edition.

One of the things that I love about Corfu - certainly in the Spring - are the flowers. It takes me back. It’s how I remember the woods and fields being when I was growing up in South Wales. A sheer abundance of daisies and buttercups.

One early memory is of waiting for my brothers to come out of primary school, and sitting in a field next to the school with my mother, piecing together Daisy Chains. It was up on a hill called Christchurch which is up above west Newport, and looks down across Caerleon, and the vale of the Usk, with the first serious mountains of South Wales beyond.

In Corfu, just about every unkempt piece of land or olive grove seems to be smothered with flowers.

Little wonder then that the name of one of their local cheeses ‘Anthotyros’ translates as ‘Flower Cheese.’

It’s sheep or goat cheese. As far as I can tell, there are no cows on Corfu, at least I didn’t spot any. Maybe they are well camouflaged.

Anthotyros hails from Macedonia, Thrace, Thessalia, Peloponissos, Ionian Islands (ie: Corfu), Aegean Islands, Crete Island and Epirus and have been producing this cheese for centuries.

If I was pressed to say what it’s like - other than itself - the stuff I bought in the shops, to go along with some tomatoes and olives, was a bit harder than Mozzarella. But not by much. I am told you can get an aged version which you can grate and smells a little bit of sherry.

Simple pleasures - sitting on a wooden chair, amongst the flowers, in the warm sunshine, and eating cheese.