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Vancouver Cheese Shops (Merged)

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Vancouver Lee

Vancouver Lee

Posted
Posted

Last week I completed another leg in my journey to create the perfect homemade pizza. I picked up some whole milk mozzarella at Granville Island market and.... :wub: Wow.

Except - it's really really expensive. Homemade pizza is a once-a-week staple in my house, and spending $12 for the cheese every week is a bit over my budget (this from the guy who just spend half a rent payment at Bearfoot Bistro on the weekend - crazy, I know :laugh: ). I've tried the mozzas you get in the grocery stories, but they are part-skim cheeses and I've never been happy with them on a pizza. Can anyone recommend a good mozza for making pizza that is a) reasonbly priced, and b) readily available?

Feel free to tell me I'm asking for the impossible. It wouldn't be the first time. :biggrin:

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

www.leecarney.com

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beetee

beetee

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Can anyone recommend a good mozza for making pizza that is a) reasonbly priced, and b) readily available?

Feel free to tell me I'm asking for the impossible.  It wouldn't be the first time. :biggrin:

Cioffi's (East Hastings and Gilmore) has buffalo mozzarella and fresh mozarella readily available but I'm not sure if it's as reasonably priced as you are looking for. I like what they have, stringy and delicious. I believe the buffalo mozz is $7.99 for a ball (maybe a 1/4 lb), but the cows milk mozz is mush easier on the wallet. They move lots of it so it's very fresh, but I've never tried the GI cheese to compare it to.

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HKDave

HKDave

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Can anyone recommend a good mozza for making pizza that is a) reasonbly priced, and b) readily available?

If you are talking about a regular (not fresh) mozza, Scardillo brand is pretty good. They're the same people that locally make excellent fresh mozza,which you can get at Scardillo's Deli on Hastings and several other places.

Hong Kong Dave

O que nao mata engorda.

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Vancouver Lee

Vancouver Lee

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Posted
Can anyone recommend a good mozza for making pizza that is a) reasonbly priced, and b) readily available?

If you are talking about a regular (not fresh) mozza, Scardillo brand is pretty good. They're the same people that locally make excellent fresh mozza,which you can get at Scardillo's Deli on Hastings and several other places.

Excellent - thank you, I'll give that a try.

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

www.leecarney.com

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  • 2 weeks later...
appreciator

appreciator

Posted
Posted

Speaking of cheese shops....... I'm wondering if anyone here has tried the cheese shop in the mini mall at 4th and Alma. It's wedged between a beauty shop and a pet store if memory serves.

Also, isn't there a cheese shop on 10th Ave. opposite the Safeway? Has some swanky looking columns at the entranceway..... perhaps it's something else but for some reason I thought they sold cheese. I guess I could go take a look myself one of these days but if anyone knows, you could post and save me the journey :smile:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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Viola da gamba

Viola da gamba

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Speaking of cheese shops....... I'm wondering if anyone here has tried the cheese shop in the mini mall at 4th and Alma.  It's wedged between a beauty shop and a pet store if memory serves. 

Also, isn't there a cheese shop on 10th Ave. opposite the Safeway? Has some swanky looking columns at the entranceway..... perhaps it's something else but for some reason I thought they sold cheese.  I guess I could go take a look myself one of these days but if anyone knows, you could post and save me the journey  :smile:

I think the one at 4th and Alma is (or used to be) Les Amis de Fromage - the one shop everyone agrees is great - but I believe they've moved since I was last in town.

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appreciator

appreciator

Posted
Posted
Speaking of cheese shops....... I'm wondering if anyone here has tried the cheese shop in the mini mall at 4th and Alma.  It's wedged between a beauty shop and a pet store if memory serves. 

Also, isn't there a cheese shop on 10th Ave. opposite the Safeway? Has some swanky looking columns at the entranceway..... perhaps it's something else but for some reason I thought they sold cheese.  I guess I could go take a look myself one of these days but if anyone knows, you could post and save me the journey  :smile:

I think the one at 4th and Alma is (or used to be) Les Amis de Fromage - the one shop everyone agrees is great - but I believe they've moved since I was last in town.

Thanks Viola but..... nope... Les Amis used to be in a mini mall on 10th and Alma - and I think it also used to be called "Menu Setters" but I could be wrong. The one in the mini mall on 4th and Alma seems to only have an awning out front that says "Cheese" but there may be other words in there I've missed. I suppose I'll just have to check it out myself one of these days and report back. :smile:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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Viola da gamba

Viola da gamba

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Thanks Viola but..... nope... Les Amis used to be in a mini mall on 10th and Alma - and I think it also used to be called "Menu Setters" but I could be wrong.  The one in the mini mall on 4th and Alma seems to only have an awning out front that says "Cheese" but there may be other words in there I've missed.  I suppose I'll just have to check it out myself one of these days and report back.  :smile:

Oops - sorry - my bad. I blame the fact that I was always on foot when I went there. I'm sure that's relevant somehow.

Does anyone else on Vancouver Island think fondly of Thrifty Foods' cheese selection? They used to get the most wonderful selection of French cheese - sufficiently detailed that you could select by French postal code (how to tell if a brie was REALLY from Normandy ...). And in Nanaimo, McLean's specialty foods is a good place to go for English cheeses.

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appreciator

appreciator

Posted
Posted

oh not to worry Viola..... mini malls are easily confused :biggrin:

re: Thrifty's... the one on Salty (aka Salt Spring Island) has a fairly extensive selection of cheese and they do seem to cover many countries with what they stock. However, I didn't notice any segregation of French cheeses by postal code.... will have to peer more closely next time I'm over. :hmmm:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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  • 4 weeks later...
appreciator

appreciator

Posted
Posted

So today I finally went in to the little cheese shop in the mini mall at 4th and Alma. The fellow who runs it used to have a cheese shop on Robson Street which he opened in the 70's and was there until some time in the 80's. He says that he still has some regular customers from back then, which I think is pretty cool.

He doesn't have a very big selection..... but I picked up some nice soft goat cheese to go with the Yukon Gold and Dill bread that I picked up earlier at Mix... :biggrin:

After today's huge lunch... I don't think I'll be sampling either for a few more hours though... :blink:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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Vancouver

Vancouver

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He is pretty funny. The last time I was in there someone came in asking for cheddar and he said, "You don't want to be here. You want Safeway." He also kept everything in ziplock bags. The cheeses I picked up there were good quality.

But my favourite is still Les Amis de Fromage. Parthenon also sometimes has whole milk mozza very reasonably priced.

Cheers!

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appreciator

appreciator

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If you have been to Les Ami de Fromage you know it's the place.

So if it's not Les Ami then it's nothing? What kind of fromagecentric thinking is that? Now... admittedly, I have not been to Les Amis but I have been to Menu Setters which was their establisment prior to Les Amis. They are great.... I don't dispute that. But I do think that we can broaden our horizons by trying a few other places now and then. :biggrin:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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appreciator

appreciator

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For all you cheese lovers out there.... can anyone tell me if the fellow who used to run the cheese shop/section at Lesley Stowe around late 1996, early 1997 is still around? :hmmm:

sarah

Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was. --Unknown

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Keith Talent

Keith Talent

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I assume I'm going to be alone in my feelings of being underwhelmed by Amis. Their selection is fine, but I am slightly dissapointed with a) their refrigeration and b) use of plastic wrap; Both of which are fatal flaws for a fine cheese merchant as far as I've been told/read/seen. Perhaps it goes back to my long held conviction that the best thing that could happen to Vancouver is for the population to grow magicly by another million people, perhaps then we'd have the critical mass required for specialty merchants to be able to do things correctly, and still be economically viable. I understand they don't move enough cheese to be able to afford to handle it correctly, we're still a small city in many regards.

A trip across the street to drool on the hoods as Wiessach (sp?) makes some of my disapointment dissappear.

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Coop

Coop

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Posted (edited)

I'm not sure enough to comment on the use of plastic wrap on fine cheese. I would agree that while the cheese is whole it should be unwrapped. I can speak for the quality of the cheese I have bought there. It was exceptional. It is 10 times better then places like Beecher's and De Laurenti's in Pikes Place in Seattle or anywhere I have been locally.

Keith do you keep pieces of cheese unwrapped in the Talent Sub Zero? Perhaps you go old school and leave it on your counter. Or even better over your shoulder in the stomach of a recently deceased Yak.

Edited by Coop (log)

David Cooper

"I'm no friggin genius". Rob Dibble

http://www.starlinebyirion.com/

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Keith Talent

Keith Talent

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Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a nice clean yak gut in this town?

The Talent Family Cheese Handling Protocols are not the best, left over frommage gets carelessly thrown in the fridge next to what ever the hell that greenish looking thing is (green pepper? cheese? tennis ball?) So yeah, my complaints seem somwhat hollow, but as a parent you've got the recognize that one of the guiding priciples of my life is "Do as I say, not as I do." Just because I leave my shoes wherever they may happen to part company with my feet doesn't mean everyone else in the family is also invited to do the same. I have pretty much the same attitude towards my cheese purveyor.

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dodger

dodger

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Posted (edited)

Tonight's dinner.... pasta.....

Problem....no Parm Reg. in the house.....

Risk going to Save - On - Foods???? the pasta is in the pot...no choice...... It is only two blocks from my house in Delta!!

OK..... excellent selection of Parm Reg...3 different brands...at a stunningly low price!...( generous wedge for about $8.00!!)...

Decided to do a rissotto because I was so giddy that I had so much on hand!!!

I was actually surprised at the selection of cheeses that they had at Save-On!

John

edited to say please excuse the typos and grammar as I am typing with one hand....

...and holding my 3 month old baby in the other...... oh...you people are sick.....

JB

Edited by dodger (log)

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

Hunter S. Thompson ---- R.I.P. 1939 - 2005

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

--Mark Twain

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  • 2 months later...
canucklehead

canucklehead

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Since it is my first spring in Vancouver in a long time - I just got a taste of fresh Salt Spring Island chevre - very tasty indeed. Not sure if this is a seasonal cheese - it was soft, creamy, and tasted so fresh and sweet. I think that I will be having it with a dab of that Korean Citron Tea - which really is basically yuzu marmalade (this month's Saveur discusses it)

The cheese ain't cheap - @ $8 for 160 grams - but it is good. I may need to find a cheaper source.

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Badiane

Badiane

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Posted

Today, Happy Goats Dairy opened the cheese shop at the Chilliwack Branch...it's called 'Heavenly Cheese'.

Heavenly Cheese

7350 A Barrow Road,

Chilliwack, BC

V2R 4J8

Phone: 604-823-7241

www.goatcheese.ca

They have all things goat - cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream. Quite a few suppliers of cheese - McClennan, Natural Pastures, Mountain Meadow, Gorts, etc.

I got Parmagiano Reggiano at $33.60 a kilo, Grana Padano was $24.40 a kilo.

Got some ash chevrotina from McLennan that was only $1.15 for a round that weighs about 160 grams...I suspect it was a misprice but I wasn't paying attention when my hubby picked it up.

They have fab Happy Days feta, too...voted 6th best in the world recently.

and lots of other things...it's right close to Anita's Organic Flour Mill.

Oh and they have all manner of European specialty foods, tiniest capers I have ever seen, some nice breadsticks, Himalayan pink salt, and interesting other little bits and pieces.

Don't try to win over the haters. You're not the jackass whisperer."

Scott Stratten

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