Day 1, Week 4

Have you already knocked off the El Camino de Santiago? What’s next? Here is an option that’ll take you due East (vs North) from Lisbon to the Spanish border, where upon you’ll immediately wander into the D.O.P. region of Badajoz. I call this the El Camino de Cheesus tour.

The choice of this goat cheese came to me via a strolling of my favourite market in Barcelona called Mercat Nord. However, it was shipped to the vender through a distributor of artisan cheeses in town called Llet Crua This company features cheeses from small producers located mostly around Spain, but also places beyond. Their only selection criteria: “A cheese must be as passionately made as their passion for eating it.” It is not a restaurant, but they do host regular cheese tasting events when not during Covid.

The couple who run it have a particular affinity for raw milk cheeses as, in their opinion, those not made with pasteurized milk tend to taste better and retain more properties of milk and animal feed

I have never walked the El Camino. But, if I do I hope it is more memorable than trying this cheese. It smelled seductively goatish and the texture had a pleasing and delicate pastiness. In short, I respect the quality of its production. It’s just that its taste was milder than expected. Instead, it delivered its flavourful punch more as an afterthought.

In summary, eating this cheese is kind of like doing a pilgrimage adventure, where the memory of experiencing it is even better than the actual trod into the Cathedral of James the Creator.