Munster d'Alsace - $14.99/lb.

Maybe it's because one of my family's genealogical charts mentions some of my ancestors as having come from Alsace. Maybe I owe it to the trip I was once lucky enough to take to the region. In any case, munster is one of my very favorite cheeses, and the true, real, great munster comes only from the French provinces of Alsace and its neighbor Lorraine. It's a rich and powerful cheese, soft, sticky and pungent, yet it also has a finesse I admire. Venerable producer Jean Haxaire not only makes his own cheeses, he also acts as something of a negociant, buying good wheels from other small-scale producers. The result? His munster is the highest quality of any we can get our hands on.