Cheddar Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means

This is a sad day for me. And a nauseous one. I went to my favourite lunch spot today. I’ve been going there for years and have never had any issue. It’s a nice little spot that makes food from scratch and has a delightful staff. UNTIL TODAY. I purchased a small ready-to-go meal that had a bit of cheese in it. As soon as I opened it, I got hit int he face with the scent of old gym socks. Feet. Vomit on shoes. That awful smell cheese gets before it starts to grow visible mold. I take the item back. The gal who is usually fine to deal with tells me “that’s just how cheddar smells”. I actually couldn’t believe it. She was trying to convince me that cheddar was supposed to smell like sweaty socks. Like it was one of those fancy cheeses that has a bit of an odd smell. It’s cheddar. The most popular of all cheeses. I am aware of what it’s supposed to smell like. Like, I wasn’t there to point fingers and argue, I just wanted a replacement. But after smelling a couple replacements, and hearing more about how cheddar is SUPPOSED to smell really, really, bad, I could not fathom eating anything this restaurant deemed to be fit to eat.

I told a co-worker about my disappointing experience. She said “Wow, that’s happened to me too! Except my cheese had visible mold on it. They actually tried to convince me it was fine.” Gross. Gross. Gross. What other borderline poison food have I ingested and not realized that that’s what made me sick? —The one who won’t care when your “local” business is the next to go

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2015.