Crying over my cheese!

We're back from our overnight to Philly and it was a great trip. We arrived at the train station and were greeted by the Duchess. We headed back in the direction of her place and stopped for bagels! Then checked out her new condo. Lovely!

There was a little road trip to the Longwood Gardens...wonderful...worth the trip and price of admission. Check out the fountain show with music, the Conservatory and the Idea Garden.

Following the Gardens (several hours by the way!), we drove down the road a little more to a wine tasting room in a strip mall. Paradocx Wine. I'll tell more about that in a later post.

Then trouble started. What to do that NIGHT? Stay local in the Philly burbs and head into the city for dinner??? We made the perfect choice!

All Fermentation, All The Time
The menu is all about fermentation--fermented grapes, barley & hopes and milk!
Wine, Beer & Cheese.

Tria
Wine, Cheese, Beer, Cafe
1137 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.629.9200

Important Note about wine! Click to embiggen.

Bruschetta with tomato, basil and mozarella! Delish. The tomatoes were very jammy and rich. Not sun-dried.

Bruschetta with roasted eggplant with balsamic and parmigiana. This had pretty good flavor. The balsamic was very important. I couldn't taste the parm. And the crusty bread was also very important, as the eggplant is squigee, so the crunch is needed.

We ordered three cheeses to serve as dinner with the bruschetta. This was:

CHERRY GROVE TOMA (Lawrenceville, NJ • Cow-Raw) Rich butter and berries prevail in this sweet, sharp and certified organic delight.

I liked this cheese. Well, let me start by saying, I really only like cow's milk cheeses, not goats, not sheep, not bleus... I'm from Wisconsin...that's what we did when I was living there. So, all the cheeses we had at Tria were cow's milk cheeses. And they were three different types. This was semi-firm and buttery, served with a honey-mustard spread.

These are the other two cheeses:

LEFT:
BOERENKAAS (Friesland, Holland • Cow-Raw) Mouthwatering butterscotch, fruit and nuts explode in dense, crystalline hunks.

This cheese made my eyes water. I was crying over this cheese it was soo good. A firm cheese, similar to a Parm. The crystalline hunks in the description are amazing. Salty bombs of flavor. This cheese was served with this lovely condiment. Our waitron said it was grapes, white raisins and mustard seeds, sort of a chutney. Wonderful accompaniment.

RIGHT:
PAGLIERINA (Piedmont, Italy • Cow-Pasteurized) The love affair between Robiola and Camembert: sweet butter and gentle grass, languid ooze.

This was the funniest cheese I've had. Think Brie. But in reality, it's a slightly tangy, super soft butter. The only way to eat this cheese was with a knife, spread onto bread. I suppose you could eat it with a spoon...if you like to eat straight butter with a spoon. This cheese was paired with cherries. That didn't work for me. That's ok.

All the cheeses at TRIA come from Murray's Cheese in NYC.

We still wanted more after the cheese, so we ordered the Italian meat plate. There's all sorts of goodies on here...I don't remember what's what...but it was all good. Especially the little dark round pieces in the middle, with some of the roasted peppers in balsamic and a drizzle of the roasted garlic oil (on the bottom right). YUM.



For wine, I stuck with one wine. Well, I ordered one glass and didn't like it. Jason like it the same as his, so we traded. So I ended up drinking this for the evening:
RODITIS “FOLÓI,” MERCOURI ESTATE, ’07 (Peloponnese, Greece) Ancient grape from mythological region, exhibiting refreshing fruit, white pepper and peach notes.

I didn't get any peach notes. I did get some of the pepper and citrus flavors similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. I'd order this again.