When I was a kid in 50s/60s Manchester there were only 2 kinds of cheese. Eating and cooking. The former was invariably white and crumbly. More than likely Cheshire. The latter was yellow and harder. Probably a Cheddar of some sort. Cheese spread was Dairylee and if you were lucky you got a triangle of said cheese with a wooden "spreader", a couple of salted crackers and a little pickled onion in a snack pack. Later on I remember Kraft cheese slices but they really were the bees knees and decidedly a luxury food.

In the 70s strange things started happening, like putting cheese cubes on cocktail sticks with pineapple chunks as part of a buffet. If you were really posh you had half a grapefruit with the sticks stuck in it alongside the other half a grapefruit with cocktail sausages on sticks. Looked like a couple of demented hedgehogs had been rolling in the party food. I always refer to the 70s as the decade that taste forgot :-)

Not sure when it was but Edam was probably the first foreign cheese I came across and, luckily, it did not put me off continental cheeses for life. I soon discovered Danish blue, which was promptly trumped by our own Derbyshire Stilton. Now I am narked if my local shop doesn't have a full compliment of French Compte, Spanish Marchengo, Somerset Cheddar and, the king of all, Lancashire in all its variants.

Can anyone tell it is a dull afternoon awaiting a lift to a dinner party in about an hour? With British chicken, a locally made cheesecake and a selection of wines from Italy. (Yes, Steve. Including Mossers Nero d'Avola) Our hosts have a selection of fine malts too. Don't expect any sense from me after nine.

Not that you get much anyway.

:D tG