Cheese of the week: Dutch gouda

This week's 'cheese of the week' comes from the Netherlands, home to such classics as edam and emmental. Gouda is the eponymous product of a small town in southern Holland, famous, in addition, for its "smoking pipes and its 15th century town hall" [Wikipedia].

Gouda is a semi-hard, light-yellow cheese, and unlike many Dutch cheeses, gouda contains no holes. This cheese is a far cry from the in-your-face French approach to cheese, and offers a relatively mild and unprovokative alternative. The taste is smooth and creamy, with notable overtones of butter which complement the subtle but always present classic cheese tang.

Gouda triumphantly bestrides the often mutually-exclusive traits of cheesiness and smoothness. This is a thoroughly enjoyable cheese, and I hasten to recommend it to both hardened fromageophiles and cheese noobs alike.