JENNIFER M. SCHAFFER
For a country praised for its cheeses, the Netherlands suffers from a distinct lack of publicity for all cheeses other than gouda. Walking the streets of Amsterdam, one is impressed with the sheer volume of cheese shops devoted entirely to gouda, with shop windows lined from bottom to top with fat wheels of aged gouda. While the pleasant roundness of gouda holds charm for the short-stay tourist, the foodie left to explore Amsterdam for more than a few days will find herself searching for a greater variety of cheese. Surprisingly, those desiring a chunk of fresh Dutch cheese need not scour these artisan shops and should in fact look no further than the local Albert Heijn -- a reliable supermarket chain beloved by locals and extended-stay visitors alike. In the unassuming cheese fridge of Albert Heijn, one finds a wider array of cheeses than in the whole of an Amsterdam cheese shop. This reviewer is an avid cheese fiend who, confronted with choices ranging from a dark-orange cheddar to an unidentified pale blue cheese, selected a thick slice of crusty Camembert (2.95 € for 125 g) and a small round of “Bettine gettinkaas honing,” (1.74 € for 125 g) choosing the former for its familiarity and the latter for its creamy white complexion. (Later research revealed that gettinkaas honing is a Dutch favorite: a very fresh goat cheese with honey. Bettine is a specific and reputable dairy company.)
A cut of cheese, not unlike a book, is often appraised by its cover, and depends on its wrappings to catch the consumer’s attention. The packaging of Albert Heijn’s Camembert and gettinkaas is simple - a plastic shrink wrap fit to the shape of the cut, and labeled with a generic blue-and-white sticker. The plainness, while attractive to a college student seeking cheese on a budget, may deter the more seasoned purchaser seeking more sophisticated packaging. Nevertheless, once the initial, somewhat difficult-to-open packaging is breeched, the “design thinking” that goes into Albert Heijn’s packaging is apparent: a thick slice of plastic bearing the name of the cheese in an informal, script-like font comes off the top of the cheese and may be used as a dinner-table label (akin to those found in the aforementioned artisan cheese shops of Amsterdam) if pressed vertically into the cheese. Or, for this reviewer, the hunk of plastic may be used as an impromptu knife. Its officially-intended purpose is unclear.
A whiff of the just-opened Camembert returns a thick stink that sticks to the tongue, while the gettinkaas is nearly without scent. Digging the knife into the Camembert, one is met with a tough crust; the gettinkaas, by contrast, is crustless and crumbly. (N.B.: This reviewer chose to pair the cheeses with a plain baguette, also purchased at Albert Heijn (2.99 €), in order to allow the flavors center-stage on her taste buds.) The Camembert spread smooth if a bit elastic over the bread, while the gettinkaas clumped up and crumbled when pressed into the baguette. Biting into a piece of baguette with Camembert, one is first met with the slightly-chewy crust, then with a burst of potent flavor, the texture just creamy enough to seep the flavor onto the tastebuds without melting off the tongue. It is a cheese that tastes so savory as to evoke meaty undertones, and on that first bite of Albert Heijn Camembert, this reviewer encountered a slightly bitter, slightly nutty, wholly “umami” flavor. The second bite, larger and more confident, uncovers flavors akin to salted butter, with a medium-strength bite (think sharp, but not extra-sharp, cheddar) to match the creamy texture of the cheese. This opposites-attract pairing of texture and flavor -- one soft, one sharp -- is a sharp contrast to the popular and predictable gouda, whose texture stands uniform beside its mild taste.
The gettinkaas is a less complex cheese, revealing all of its secrets at first bite. In one taste, this reviewer was met with a swell of unexpected sweetness, the honing completely dominating the other tastes at hand in the goat cheese. The youth of the cheese is apparent in its texture, smooth and milky on the tip of the tongue and cool at the back of the mouth. This patent freshness contrasts dramatically with the aged flavor of the camembert. Even the weight of the cheeses are notable: while the camembert feels heavy, fatty, the honing is a lighter cheese, more sweet cream than whole milk. The distinct differences between these cheeses begged for a meeting of flavors, and so the Camembert-gettinkaas combination was born.
Together, Albert Heijn Camembert and Albert Heijn gettinkaas honing shine. The cheeses meet on the palate and dance on the taste buds, pleasuring three senses at once: the varied textures on the tongue, the sharp smell in the nose, the contrasting tastes in the mouth. The texture of a Camembert-gettinkaas combination is at once melting and cool, a bit like the coolness of vanilla ice cream under a thick, melting chocolate sauce. The smell brings to mind memories of dark, salty, nut-filled biscotti and fresh milk. And the taste combination deserves a spot among the more-famed flavor combos: peanut butter and jelly levels of compatibility were remarked upon by this reviewer and her companion, a not-unexpected result given the savory-sweet notes of the cheeses. In the meeting of Camembert and gettinkaas honing there is a reminder of the old, leaning canal houses and the crisp modern-design buildings in Amsterdam, where the historic and the fresh blend easily to produce a local flavor all its own.
Gouda may be the king of Dutch cheeses, but two unexpected players -- the jester-like gettinkaas and wizardly Camembert -- are conspiring in his court, offering the visitor to Amsterdam a sensual experience beyond the humble expectations evoked by their generic, Albert Heijn packaging. Amsterdam deserves its reputation as a European cheese center, but not for its large wheels of dull-shining Gouda. Instead, its title is earned in its unassuming local supermarket aisles -- where the lucky hungry traveler might come across two such affordable, compatible treats as the Albert Heijn Camembert and Bettine gettinkaas honing.
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