Last week we did fruit prices. Today, cheese!
A wide selection of ghastly mozzarella cheese, for one. And at $6.70/lb, no less! I tried a cheaper brand of this stuff on pizza once and it never really melted. It just got all shiny and goopy, and it was practically tasteless. The bar mozzarella is much the same. What I do now (I am obviously not too ashamed to admit) is wait for the good imported mozzarellas to almost expire, at which point Carrefour reduces the price by half. Then I buy about eight bags and store them in my freezer. I win.
The cheddar situation is similarly bleak. Thank goodness for Monte Christo brand - it's decent, and it costs roughly $5.60/lb. You can also get Kraft brand cheddar, and a white cheddar from Vermont, but they're more expensive. So yes, next time I go to the US I will be filling up as much suitcase space as I can with bars of Tillamook cheese.
Ah, Babybel mini cheese wheels. These are my concession to the idea of string cheese, which is available here but is sold individually for the equivalent of $1 per stick. Every once in a while, they sell it in "bulk" bags of 12 pieces for about $6.80. String cheese in the US is a convenient snack. For the price we pay here, it's more like a rare delicacy. Anyway, the babybel cheese are 1 dirham (27 cents) each, which I can live with. Also, it takes kids a long time to open up the shiny wrapper and the wax coating, and they love the novelty of it, which is a bonus.
I wish I wasn't such a cheese-dependent American, because dang, that stuff is expensive here. I think we eat less of it now than when we lived in the US, but it still gets me every time I shell out seven bucks for 8 ounces of parmesan.
What else is on offer in the cheese aisle at Carrefour in the UAE?
Here's the story on Pepper Jack. I have only ever seen it at the Mirdif Carrefour. That's it. Spinney's doesn't even seem to carry it, at least not that I've noticed. An 8-ounce bar usually costs $4, which is prohibitive for us. But if I am diligent about checking, I can find almost-expired bars bundled in twos as you see above, selling for $4 total (half off). Today I bought four bundles of two and put the extra in my freezer. It's a bountiful Pepper Jack harvest!
Don't get your hopes up about anything more exciting than cheddar and pepper jack. Every once in a while I see something like Monterey Jack, or Colby, but that's about it. I have seen ricotta cheese on occasion, but never cottage cheese, which I don't think is a real cheese, but I wanted to mention it because man, I miss that stuff.
What about local cheese? Well, we love Haloumi but it's not super cheap either - maybe $4/lb? Cream cheese is also very popular over here, in jars and in tubs, so sometimes we get that.
There are plenty of European cheeses available (Gouda, Edam, etc.), but since they aren't any cheaper than the American stuff (and since, uh, I like the American stuff better), I don't worry about them.
Anyway, hooray for almost-expired cheese! The end.