S. Worthen | Weblog

I ran around town on errands for a few hours this afternoon, starting with a brass band concert, which isn't an errand at all. ewtikins' university band was performing as part of a brass band festival at Regent Hall. I'd forgotten how much good thinking I get done when listening to pleasant music.

After were the errands: checking out Paul A. Young's new chocolate shop near Bank; Borough Market; grocery store. At the Borough Market, I remembered we were running low on parmesan cheese. There's a dedicated parmesan cheese vendor there, so I wandered over to buy some, after a nibble to be sure it was decent. The vendor and I fell to talking about parmesan cheese graters. He likes his classic, producing a fine and fluffy grate which melts on touch with warmth. I prefer mine decidedly untraditional, coarsely grated, with the texture of the cheese still detectable to tooth. We agreed that rotary grinders are wonderfully convenient; that it's frustrating to leave one out when it has a bit of cheese stuck in it. I observed that my parents keep theirs in the fridge. Mine broke, so I'm currently using a regular grater. He says he's had an eye out for a microplane parmesan grater for ages, but graters these days aren't, in general, made to last.

And then, as he wrapped up my cheese and I paid, he paused and wished he had more conversations like this one. "I hear they can talk all afternoon about parmesan in Italy." he added wistfully.