Gouda is a city of about 70 000 about 20min northeast of Rotterdam by train. It has a very nice old town centre. Right in the middle of the main market area is the magnificent old stadhuis(city hall). And right next to the market square is St. Janskerk a really large beautiful old church. It's quite unique(at least for me) in the Netherlands as it is actually named after a saint. It seems most churchs here are either called 'oudekerk' (old church) and 'nieuwekerk' (new church).
As for the cheese, well, I'll just copy and paste from wikipedia:
The cheese is made from cow's milk that is cultured and heated until the curd is separate from the whey. Some of the whey is then drained, and water is added. This is called "washing the curd", and creates a sweeter cheese, as the washing removes some of the lactic acid. About ten percent of the mixture is curds which are pressed into circular moulds for several hours. These molds are the essential reason behind its traditional, characteristic shape. The cheese is then soaked in a brine solution which gives the cheese its rind and distinctive taste. The cheese is then dried for a couple of days before being coated to prevent it from drying out, then it is aged, depending on age classification, for a number of weeks to over 7 years before it is ready to be eaten.
I find it to be a very nice cheese. It's hard to avoid it here, it usually is the main cheese sold in most grocery stores.
The cheese market:
The Cheese ladies!
The back of the Stadhuis:
The Stadhuis with St. Janskerk further behind:
2 comments:
Oh dio! I loooove Gouda cheese! A cheese market sounds awesome. Will is taking me to a cheese festival he saw an ad for here in Cardiff in september, can't wait lol.
When we went to NYC in 2006, we were sitting at our gate in the amsterdam airport waiting patiently, and we noticed the tax-free store next to us had free samples of Gouda! I think I got about 30 samples! After the 10th sample, I figured I had to come up with new imaginative ways to "casually" walk past the cheese platter, I hope I managed but most likely the store guy saw right through me haha. I was half thinking of buying a piece of cheese but decided it would be too dumb to gnaw on cheese for the whole flight :-p
I think I should be ashamed of myself, because if I remember it well (although remembering is not one of my strongest qualities), I've actually never been to Gouda...
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