Cheesed Off

I have this amazing idea for a restaurant/bar type place that would specialise in cheese boards and other cheese related foodstuffs (Welsh rarebit, cauliflower cheese, that kind of thing). But that's not all. Borrowing slightly from Meatball Shop in New York, the premise would involve people ticking off the cheeses they want on a betting shop style coupon and then handing it over at the bar. Then their chosen selection of cheeses (or other cheese related foodstuff) would be prepared and taken to their table. If anybody wants to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds into this extremely niche and unprofitable business idea, let me know.

Until then, I'll have to make do with ordering my cheese boards in non-specialist eateries without being able to use a coupon to make my cheese preferences known. Bakerie, on Lever Street, does a pretty good cheese board. We went there a while ago and you get three cheeses (from about six different options), mini gherkins, pickled onions and some dead nice bread and it is flipping great (grate?). They do a meat board too, if you don't like cheese very much. Although if that is the case I'm not really sure why you have bothered to read up to this point.

Recently we went to Marble Brewery's 57 Thomas Street. I have decided that developing a penchant for real ale would really round off my 'look' (cringe). Still, no matter how hard I try, it always tastes a bit gross to me. So the fact that they do a cheese board gave me the opportunity to simultaneously try and make myself like beer while enjoying some amazing cheeses.

I can't remember what beer we had, but I actually quite enjoyed it! I think if I persevere I might actually develop a taste for it. Fingers crossed. Anyway, as the photo above clearly shows, they have a pretty massive collection of cheeses to choose from.

We went for the 9 cheeses for £10.95 between us, although I can't remember for the life of me what we ordered. Some kind of brie, the blue Cheshire, a crumbly Lancashire of some description and uh, other ones. The Bath Oliver biscuits were incredible, as was the pickle that came with it. My mouth is watering as I type.  We had a kind of smoky flavoured cheddar amongst the nine, and that was probably my favourite. They were all absolutely delicious though. Cheese!

Feel free to share your favourite cheeses below, don't keep your top fromage tips to yourself!

See yer!

S

Today by Stef Bradley

Last weekend we took our stuff to sell at the Leeds Zine Fair. It was alright! We sold quite a bit of stuff and spoke to some nice people and generally had a pretty good time. While we were having a look round the other stalls, we came across the amazing Today zine, which is written by Stef Bradley, and we liked it so much that we thought we'd devote an entire post to it. Here is that post.

Today is a comic of sorts, full of dead funny drawings that document what its creator thinks about on a day-to-day basis. From silverfish infestations and poems about winter being absolutely bobbins to the awkward situations that ensue when you take over a recently deceased person's job. It's all there. If I was writing for a high brow publication, I might describe it as a 'celebration of the minutiae of everyday life'. That's right! The minutiae!

Here's a bit of Today volume one for you to have a look at. Stef was selling the first two volumes of the zine in a pencil case type thing for FIVE POUNDS (Keep reading for sample photo of that). Bargain! We bought one and read and re-read both volumes on the way home. Liz can't even read on public transport without feeling sick but she flipping well had a go, such was her desperation to have another look.

By the time we had arrived back home, our zine super fandom had reached fever pitch. The first thing we did  was try and look for the zine on the internet. 'Surely there must be some kind of web presence for such a talent?' said neither of us. Sadly this turned out not to be the case, so we were unable to do any kind of research (Hence the poor quality of this post). So then we just had to send an overenthusiastic email to Stef, just to let her know how great her zines are. Not only did she reply, she actually sent us a free copy of the third instalment of Today! Amazing. Here's a photo with all three volumes of the zine (In order!) and the pencil case thing that comes with the first two.

As mentioned above, there's no website/blog/anything for Today at the moment. You can, however, buy stuff from Stef by emailing her if you like! Just send orders and compliments to stef bradley at live dot co dot uk and I'm sure you'll be able to come to some kind of agreement. Alternatively, you'll be able to buy the zine at the Inprint Liverpool Print Fair, which is going to be at the Shipping Forecast pub on December 9th. And in even more exciting news, she's going to be sharing a stall with us! You'll only need to visit one stall to buy all your zine related Christmas presents.

In other news, you can buy the new issue of Young Explorer on our Etsy now. It's got Phil Elverum, Haiku Salut, buses, illustrations, a competition (!) and a thing I wrote about my grandad's record collection that, if you squint, could almost be described as 'poignant'. Get on it, or something like that.

See yer!

S