Manchego

By GlosKat

Fri, 13 Feb 2026
  • 314 reads
14 comments
 

Manchego is my favourite

It comes from sheep in Spain

It's nice and dry and nutty

'Cos they never get much rain

Certificate U
Non-fiction
Humour

Comments

Submitted by HarryC on

laugh

The rain in Spain goes mainly down the drain!

Submitted by GlosKat on

Ah so that's why it's so dry in La Mancha ...

 

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

There might be a manchego shortage this year if it depends on dry land Gloskat. Better stock up!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20l6d03e1no

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Gosh that looks bad doesn't it.

 

Submitted by TJW on

Brie is my favorite

It comes from cows in France

It's soft and smooth and nutty

And for the French their best chance

unlike their tanks

How many gears do you reckon it has?

Well their tanks rank 

with four

three for reversing

and one for advancing

in case the enemy 

attacks from behind

Still

warm brie and drizzle it

with

honey

and I'll eat it all

It's all mine

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Yep Brie is my second favourite.  It's made round here too - Cotswold Brie. I like to support local farmers.

 

Submitted by TJW on

Don't understand 2nd favorite.  There's your favorite and all the rest.  

 

Submitted by Turlough on

My favourite cheese is Kashkaval

From cows reared near Plovdiv

The milk comes out quite lumpy

So they put it through a sieve

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

I was going to order some from Tesco, but it's out of stock, did you eat it all ?

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/307742994?msockid=3b8c1e7...

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Actually, kashkaval’s a bit rank. It’s like Edam that’s been left out of the fridge a couple of weeks. We only really use it for cooking or filing down the goats’ hooves. And they say 'say kashkaval' when they want you to smile for a photograph.

Cireneh is better. It’s more like feta. In the shops they sell it made with milk from cows, goats, sheep or our local breed of buffalo, and each comes salted or unsalted. So Bulgarians think they have eight different types but it’s all pretty similar. Food and drink here are absolutely wonderful but the cheese and the beer (that wishy washy fizzy yellow stuff they have everywhere outside of Britain, Ireland and northern Europe) let them down. Bulgarian yoghurt is the best in the world and even the scientists will tell you that.

I only said kashkaval in that short verse because it fits better than cireneh.

Your Tesco kashkaval is Polish and the fact that they sell it in a tub makes me think it’s more like cireneh. I think kashkaval is a generic word for cheese in Slavik languages so it probably includes many things between here and there. It might be worth a try though when they have some in. I’ve been to Poland a couple of times and their food is also gorgeous but probably not as healthy as ours and it’s a graveyard for vegetarians.

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

Thanks for all the cheesey gen Turlough.  As a cheeseaholic I find that very interesting.  I will try that Tesco kashkaval when it comes in.  It doesn't sound too unhealthy, it's got loads less saturated fat than cheddar.  Although dairy products don't affect your cholesterol, in spite of the high saturated fat levels. A lady called Dr Emma Feeney has done research into that at University College Dublin.  So she's my heroine, because I live off cheese but my cholesterol is a bit border line. lhttps://www.ucd.ie/newsandopinion/news/2017/mar/13/eatinglotsofcheesedoesnotraisecholesterol/

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I’d be interested to know what you think of the Polish kashkaval. Where possible we’ve stopped buying food from supermarkets as, although not incredibly unhealthy, their cheese will probably contain preservatives. We buy cirene from a small shop in the next village just up the road. It’s locally produced and they have it in blocks from which they cut quantities to order. When we get it home we keep it immersed in water so that it retains its creamy texture. It’s not ideal sandwich material but chopped up on top of a salad it’s really nice.

A big German supermarket called Metro sells Gorganzola and Power’s Irish Whiskey. I have to have my hands tied behind my back before I go in there.

The cholesterol article was interesting, so thanks for that. It mentions that it’s not so much individual food items as it is dietary patterns that influence the state of a person’s health. There’s a lot of truth in the Mediterranean diet way of thinking, and that’s more or less what we have here.  

 I think the big trouble in Ireland is caused by their breakfasts and all the fried food they eat. Every food shop and petrol station sells hot fried food to take away and kids call in to buy sausages and chicken legs on their way to and from school. In Bulgaria if you want to buy indigestion tablets you have to go to a pharmacy and when you ask an assistant for them they disappear for five minutes because they don’t know where they’re kept. But in Ireland there’s usually a couple of shelves full of them at each check-out.

My cholesterol was high but that turned out to be because I was drinking too much Bulgarian coffee. I tried not having it so strong but didn’t like it so I’ve given up and switched to tea (Barry’s, imported from Ireland). There’s an old Turkish / Balkan saying, ‘Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.’

Our yoghurt is supposed to be good for cholesterol because it whizzes all the other food through the body before it can do any damage. I once wrote a poem about it for ABC… Lactobacillus Bulgaricus or Bust!

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

Loved your poem.  We have several local dairies, including Brinkworth and Chedworth, whose yogs and cheese are sold in local farm shops and the one proper independent fruit and veg shop in Cirencester.  

I refused to take statins, did my online research, and in six months brought my overall cholesterol down by 9% and my bad cholesterol down by 11%, just by drinking a glass of beetroot juice every day. 

Interesting about coffee, I had no idea it put cholesterol up.  ABC is a mine of useful information ! Think of all those 'x;' words I now know cos of the alphabet challenge. I'm just waiting for an opportunity to invite the neighbours over for a xenodochial supper.

 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I used to buy Brinkworth made cheese from a farm shop in Chippenham, just near where Marshfield Road crossed the ring road. I had foot customers in Brinkworth too. They claimed that it was England's longest village.

Enjoy your supper but go steady... I don't know how many polyunsaturates are contained in xenodochia.  

Turlough