There are two branches of L'Amuse - the one in Santpoort-Noord, that I have been lucky enough to visit, and one in Amsterdam. They are a family-run, friendly business with an incredible selection of the best 400 cheeses from around the world, but this is the one that everyone goes there for, Truffle Brie:
Our wonderful, beautiful, kind, fun friends (yes, you can come again, A, D and A!) visited us from the Netherlands and generously brought us a wickedly ,melting slice of L'Amuse's truffle brie.
The cheesemongers take an entire round brie, slice it in half, spread it with a thick layer of rich, white mascarpone and thin shavings of black truffle, then replace the two halves and shave some more slivers of truffle on the top and leave to mature.
It is one of my favourite foods in the entire world. It tastes like brie, only more so. Pungent, earthy, creamy and melting. You have to wrap it in several layers if it gets to your fridge as the aroma can pervade all your food.
I apologise to the unnamed pale orange whole cheese (with fern) that is fading into insignificance in the background in a very modest and unassuming way. This was also really tasty - all I can remember is that it's from Corsica - but it cannot beat its upfront rival - Dutch Truffle Brie. I enjoyed this cheese platter at the end of a lovely summery dinner at home, with four great friends.
1-0 to Holland so far at 20:05 - Go Oranje!
Oh no 1-1 at 20:10......Come on Holland!
9 comments:
Sounds wonderful and isn't it great to get presents from other parts, even if we do have some great cheeses of our own. I've still not tried black truffles and I most certainly haven't tried this cheese - yum!
Hi Choclette - I just posted a question on your (excellent) blog about chocolate and courgette cake. You must try truffles (of the non-chocolate variety) - perhaps start with truffle oil as they're not in season but that gives you an idea of the weird 'umami' flavour before you progress to the seriously expensive stuff!
By the way, are you still coming to that food bloggers meet up at the beginning of August in Totnes? - it would be great to meet you in person - there are about four of us so far.
My partner James would probably eat a whole wheel of that stuff in one sitting, and I'm not kidding!
How expensive is the truffle cheese? One-off titchy bit expensive or manageable?
Lolb - James is obviously a cheese monster - understandable. Problem with brie plus mascarpone is that it's lard on lard - both full extra artery-blocking fat. But so good.
Angie - hmm, depends on your point of view - I seem to remember that a slice that size was about 20 euros (so about £17) so I guess just over twice the price of regular brie. It's difficult to tell the scale, but the photo shows the cheese on a dinner plate rather than a side plate, so it's probably 500g or so. The thing is that it's so good that it is actually worth the price. Plus it's Brie de Meaux, so it's top quality cheese before the luxury additions. Fab as a treat, but maybe not for your every day lunch sandwiches!
Hooray for Holland - they won! ....and into the final
Thanks for the comment - brie with truffles is the best!
Teignmouth - how nice. Grandparents lived in Dawlish for 25 years so half grew up there. Hot chocolate and toasted teacakes in the Beachcomber in Teignmouth seemed like the height of luxury after the walking the seawall from smugglers cove. Such a nice place.....
That cheese looks fantastic,lovely and ripe.Wonder if you can get it anywhere in the UK?
James - you're more of a true local than me by the sounds of it. I'm from Bristol originally, so an 'incomer'. Don't know when you last visited but I'm sure you'd find that the Beachcomber hasn't changed one little bit - furniture, view, menu, same tin of hot chocolate. They have just converted the old paddling pool in front of it into a skate park that everyone is quite excited about. And of course Muse played here last September. Apart from that, nothing much else goes on!
Northern Snippet - I have heard that the only place you can get it in UK is Harrods - makes sense! We attempted to make our own at Xmas - my husband bought me a jar of Carluccio's Truffle Butter and we halved a large wedge of Brie and spread it with a thick shmear of the butter. It was a half decent attempt, but nowhere near the real thing. So Harrods or Holland. Unfair!
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