CHEESE SHOP

Okay, here's a couple of questions (or maybe just thoughts) for you...

If, whenever we come away from a cheese shop (especially a "dangerous" one like this one...), we always end up with a fridge that smells of unwashed and sweaty feet every time you open the door, why don't cheese shops smell like that whenever you open the front door walk inside them...?

It is, of course, only "dangerous" from the point of view of our credit and debit cards because of the many cheesey delights and accessories on sale within, and not because of any inherent dangers of the products they are selling (as he listens to the sound of his left ventricle slamming shut...) but, when it comes to matters of cheese, you really do have to tread very caerphilly...

I am unreliably informed that far eastern countries are not quite so keen on cheese as we are in western civilisation, and that tourists can be quite put off by the vaguely milky smell that emanates from all of us who have a diet with a high-dairy content, and, because so much of my own diet is cheese-related in some way, I do wonder quite what they discovered during their food history that managed to serve exactly the same purpose.

After all, as it  probably took a leap of genius for someone in history to make the connection between the fluid that you could draw from an animal and decide that humans could probably drink it, and further great leaps had to be made to allow it to turn into butter, cheese, yoghurt and all the rest, most of our human food decisions have been fairly universal, despite the various communities of early humans growing up in relative isolation from each other, so why that particular idea managed to fail to make the cut in a civilisation so old that it will pretty much eat anything, is a bit of a mystery.

Meanwhile we come to another question, and this one is about tea.

After all, whilst it probably took another great leap of faith for someone to look at a pile of dried leaves and wonder what it might be like to pour boiling water on them and whether that would make a refreshing drink, most of the tea leaves that we put into our teapots and mugs come from far eastern countries and yet what we call "tea" and what some of those cultures call "tea" are sometimes completely different things.

"Worlds apart" you might say...

Not only that but compulsive tea drinkers over here can find certain types of tea that they are presented with in those places thoroughly undrinkable, so what exactly defines a cup of tea, and is there a universal answer that would satisfy everyone who thinks that they know what makes the perfect cuppa...?

Something to ponder on during your next tea break, anyway...