Australian Buffalo Mozzarella

0

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 15-03-2009

Friday I attended the first Taste of Sydney, a food and wine event that provides a chance to sample small dishes from some of the best restaurants in Sydney. As well as stands from Sydney restaurants there were stalls from food and wine vendors from all over the country.
Of course for me the highlight was the chance to see and try new cheeses.

The three most exciting cheeses there were:

  • Tasmanian Heritage Camembert. This cheese won Champion Camembert in the 2008 Wisconsin World Cheese Awards.
  • Yarra Valley Dairy marinated Persian Fetta. This cheese won 2001 Best In the World – Marinated Fetta at the World Cheese Awards in London
  • Vannella Cheese Factory Bufalina. Although this cheese hasn’t won any international awards it has won several Australian awards.

Go Aussie cheese!

It’s the Vannella Bufalina that stands out in my mind. There are very few sources of buffalo milk in Australia and until Friday I assumed they were all in Victoria. Vannella Cheese Factory is located in Cairns, Queensland and gets it’s buffalo milk from a dairy nearby. The family that runs the cheese factory moved from Italy to Australia to set up operations in Cairns.

The Bufalina that I tasted was a perfect example of what fresh mozzarella should taste like. It was fresh and delicate with a subtle clean milky flavour. It broke gently into pieces with beautiful angel hairs clinging to each side.

Cheese is such an amazing food because it can range from strong to gentle flavours. I admire so much the work of the affineur to age to perfection cheese for months and even years. At the same time I can’t help but admire the cheesemaker that produces fresh cheese. The delicate and deceptively simple perfection of fresh cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta are simply amazing.