Festival of Cheese - Market

I went back to the Hilton Sunday morning to see what kind of cheese I could buy at the cheese market. I didn't really know what to expect other than that the cheeses would be heavily discounted and I should probably get their early. I arrived just after it opened, around 10:15 and already there were about 100 people roaming a very small room with mountains of cheese in their arms. The cheeses were in HUGE chunks, like whole wheels and multi-pound blocks.

What was truly amazing was the fact that ALL cheese was being sold at $5/lb. FIVE DOLLARS A POUND! You cant even get a chunk of kraft cheddar at the grocery store for that. We're talking artisan cheese at $20-30+ a pound normally. So anyway this was amazing, but would have been even more amazing if you could buy smaller chunks of the cheeses. I really don't want 5 lbs of gouda even if I do love it! Although I looked hard, it appears that any small chunks there might have been had been snatched up already.

Another annoying thing was that hardly anything was marked. The cheeses were vaguely arranged by types on the tables, but you couldn't tell what anything really was. So aside from having to buy a huge chunk of something, it might not be something you love.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, my favorite cheeses of the night were all soft cheeses and those were all in individual packages and containers. So thats what I focused on. I ended up getting 5 things and wish I had gotten more. I found a container of Alouette cream cheese spread (also available at HEB) that I always love, as well as an herb covered goat cheese from Pure Luck Austin cheesery. I also found one of my favorites from last night, the soft cheese with raspberry puree. Rounding out my purchase was a small unflavored goat cheese, and a goat brie. I couldn't tell how much all that would be, and there really wasnt too much to choose from, so I just stopped there.

At the cash register I picked up 2 boxes of these AMAZING crispbread crackers to go with all the soft cheeses. These crackers are wafer thin and pretty much taste like an ice cream cone - which is nothing. They add no flavor to cheese, have barely any calories, and are just perfect.

My total for the 5 cheeses was only $10 and at $2 a box of crackers, my total came out to be $14, which is WAY underpriced for all the stuff I got! I only wish I had bought more!