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Comment by forty | Hacker News Reader

I like how cheese stubbornly doesn't want to be an industrial tasteless odorless crap. Camembert is well known to be mostly controlled by industrial, meaning most Camembert even here in France are industrial crap (there is a AOP/DPO "Camembert de Normandie" which is better and at least forbids pasteurized milk).

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Actually the AOP has been weakened by the industrial lobby since 2021, the real one is now «véritable camembert de Normandie».

Personally I've never been a fan, except when barbecued.

Slice the Camembert horizontally and put it in the wooden container it comes with, add garlic, olive oil and thyme, bake for about 15min. Goes great with a lot of stuff.

To be honest, I was born and spent my first 23 years in Normandy, never quite could enjoy the real Camembert. I prefer the supermaket ones with less aggressive taste.

Ofc I moved to China and now all I can eat is Brie.

Order some https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubing from Yunnan on Taobao. For western cheese try https://www.metro.com.cn/en/home who sometimes do good deals on wheels of Gouda, fetta, blue cheeses, etc. Don't buy the small highly marked up stuff from specialty retailers, they're always a ripoff. A couple of importers on Taobao too, for specific products. They are a good source for Indian, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients too.

They dont import Camembert in China? In Japan we hardly ever find Brie

No, the only cheese that is easily available in Japan is shredded Gouda.

To be fair, cheese in most countries are industrial odorless crap. Or if there's some good one, there's often not a lot of diversity. France and Italy are probably the 2 countries where cheeses are "stubborn". If people know other countries with great cheese culture, I'd be curious to know though.

Portugal has lots of different cheeses (and wine, olive oil, sausages, ...)

The link below lists only the protected ones.

https://tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/en/categories/cheese-and-ot...

Switzerland and Austria both have incredible alpine mountain cheeses.

I've heard good things about Switzerland.

Belgium and the Netherlands without any doubt

Check this ad: https://youtu.be/qKe1twOahmQ?feature=shared. It used to be broadcast everyday on TV when I was a boy.

My favourite one for eating on a slice of bread with some soup : Orval. Another favourite of mine, close to Orval: Fromage d'Amblève/Ameler Käse.

And as I mention Orval cheese, it reminds me of their beer, which is also one of the best worldwide.

And this leads me to Chouffe and McChouffe beers, and Lupulus.

Just try to avoid the supermarkets.

It's very hard to find a good camembert now. Easier with goat cheese and other products from the mountain.

But yesterday we bought one in Esteron that finally tasted how it's supposed to taste.

So it still exists, but as with anything popular, it dies from tragedy of the common.

I'm sure you're right about the declining quality of Camembert, but I can't help but be reminded of this comic:

http://smbc-comics.com/comic/craproot

what do you mean by "tragedy of the common"? is it a play on words regarding the economical "tragedy of the commons"?

We know what he means. As popularity increases quality drops as manufacturers scale up to meet demand. As demand increase the economic incentives change and there's pressure to cut costs and thus quality suffers.

The problem's been around since time immemorial.

Watch out for:

    - Jort
    - Marie Harel
    - Gillot
    - Moulin de Carel

Those are good ones? Or bad ones? I believe Marie Harel invented camembert

Yes, those are good ones. BTW, Marie Harel is made by Gillot. As a general rule, avoid any pasteurized camembert, they have no taste.

Those are good.

"Keep an eye out for" better fits your intention. "Watch out for" implies potential danger or a need for caution. "Watch for" might work but is more for use in an active situation that changes.

Thanks. English is not my first language, it's good to learn more of it.

Actually, one could argue there's potential danger in good cheese. A danger for pasteurized cheese of course.

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