Cheese is the god of all foods. It is used for so many things including salad, pasta, hot dogs, pizza, cheese platters, sandwiches, various kinds of bread, and those little cheese wheels that everyone likes to have as a daily snack. It can be flavorful, bland, stretchy, hard, soft, squishy, liquidly, colorful, or uncolored because of the hundreds of different kinds. Just saying that cheese is the god of food is a major understatement.
Let's start from the beginning. Cheese was said to have been created by a Greek one-eyed creature. Thats obviously not true, but no one knows the real origin, so they left it at that. Cheese started in Greece and Rome and stayed there for quite a while. Some centuries later, Romans realized that it wasn't fair for the rest of Europe not being able to eat these wonderful foods, so the Romans spread cheese making techniques all across Europe. Cheese was unheard of in oriental areas and scarcely available in places like Africa. The first factory opened in Switzerland in 1815, but it wasn't very successful. America was the first place cheeses were first popular. That factory was opened in 1851 by a farmer.
Making cheese is a very complicated process. It starts with getting the milk. Cheese varies a little depending on what the animal eats, so cheese makers have to get milk from the same animals with the same diets. After cheese makers obtain the milk, they have to separate it into curds and whey. To do this, They acidify the milk and add rennet, which separates the curds and whey, and some starter bacteria. The curd is then separated from the whey and cut into cubes. This allows more whey to drain out. Then, salt is added to drain out more whey, to preserve the cheese better, and to add a bit of flavor. After that, the cheese is pressured to get out more whey, and left to age.
The aging process is also complicated. For some cheeses, you can just leave it in a cold place for the bacteria to take effect and give it more flavor and texture and those familiar holes which are actually just carbon dioxide emitted from the bacteria. But for most, mold is added. Mold does many different things to the cheese. For some cheeses, the mold forms a outer layer to protect the cheese. For others, it digs deeper and creates colorful "veins". All cheeses with mold change texture and flavor. Mold plays a major part in the aging process of cheese. After the aging process, the cheese is ready to eat.
When someone goes into a cheese market, he is immediately struck by the vast variety of cheeses. There are hundreds and hundreds, and it is often very difficult to choose which one to get. My personal favorite is one you can buy at many grocery stores, The Laughing Cow's Mini Babybel Original cheese. At a first glance, one can tell that it is going to be a very tasty and hight quality cheese. Each little circle of cheese is coated with luxurious red reshapeable wax to preserve it. The wax itself looks edible, but self preservation instincts prevent you from taking a bite out of it. You will then stare for a while, wondering how to open it. You begin to grow frantic with the prospect of not getting to eat your precious cheese. Then you see it. There are two little strips of paper at one end of the wax coating that invite you to pull on them. When you eventually do pull on them, you are greeted with the wonderful aroma of cheese which is unlike any you have smelled before. You also get a first glimpse of what will be the best snack in your career of snack testing. There are a few familiar holes from the release of carbon dioxide from the bacteria. You then take the top half of the wax off and admire the beauty of the cheese. Its yellowish white and has lots of indents which are bubbles. You can resist no longer and you take your first bite. The first thought you have is, "Wow its pretty soft, must be a creamy cheese". Then you chew for a while and realize that it feels a lot like cream cheese. The only difference in feeling is the springy feeling that is common in soft and creamy cheeses. Then the taste finally gets through your taste buds. It has a slight acidic flavor that most cheeses have. It is also very buttery and greasy in a good way. When you finally swallow the cheese, You realize the amazing after taste which is a lot like less acidic cream cheese. By then, you are converted to a cheese lover. You can't wait to take another bite. You get the same experience with every bite to the last drop. Then, you realize it is gone and go back to the refrigerator for another one.
For the many cheese haters who only have tried processed cheese, you have to try Babybel Original cheese. Why? Well, in my opinion, processed cheese is the bane of cheese's existence. It goes great with sandwiches and other stuff like that, but by itself it just doesn't have cheese magic. Its texture is horrible. It doesn't stay together at all, and it just simply turns into a liquid in your mouth. The flavor is too intense. The manufacturers do this to make it stand out more in sandwiches, but by itself, it is disgusting. There are so many complaints I could make about processed cheese, but that would just take up half of my whole article.
I will say this again. If you are in fact a cheese hater who's only tried processed cheese, then you have to try some quality cheese. There are so many different flavors and textures, so if you don't like one, you can always try another until you find one that's just right. Cheese is truly the God of all foods.
(Btw, this is my 1010 word post)
I'm not going to be able to get back to you on this until later tonight - but good job. I'm proud of you.
ReplyDeleteAssignment for today: write whatever you feel like. 350+ words.
First of all - great work on the article, I really liked it.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any major problems with sentence structure, so I'll talk about the importance of POV for a second.
"When someone goes into a cheese market, he is immediately struck by the vast variety of cheeses. There are hundreds and hundreds, and it is often very difficult to choose which one to get. My personal favorite is one you can buy at many grocery stores,"
There's not anything _technically_ wrong with the sentences above, but you switch from "someone" to "he" to "My" to "you." In the future, try sticking with a consistent point of view. Start off with "When _you_ walk into a cheese market, _you_..." This is more of a style issue than anything else - just make sure to establish how you're going to address the reader early on (first, second, or third person) and stick with it.
Mostly, you've chosen to stick with second person here: "You get the same experience with every bite to the last drop. Then, you realize it is gone and go back to the refrigerator for another one."
There isn't necessarily a problem with this, but you'll find that very few professional writers use this POV in this type of writing. You're basing this description off of your own personal experiences, so why don't you write in first-person? Who are you to tell us what we should be experiencing? It's really a matter of personal taste, but I think this post would be much more effective if you stuck with first-person for its entirety. "I love cheese because I get the same experience with every bite. Then, whenever I realize it's gone, I instinctively go back to the refrigerator for another one."
In this case, first person is more effective. So in what types of situations is the use of second-person appropriate? Well, it's tough to tell, and it takes experience before you're able to distinguish. I know that after years of writing, I myself am still trying to find the exact instances in which it should be used. But here are a few rules/guidelines.
1) Don't use "you"/second-person in academic essays or school papers. In an analytical essay, you use the word "one." For example: "One gets the impression that Ray Bradbury disapproves of censorship in the book Fahrenheit 451." Exception: When it's a persuasive essay, in which case it's alright if you don't get carried away with it.
2) When you're addressing the reader directly, as one person to another, you can use it. For example, I'm writing this blog comment as a means of directly addressing you, so that means that it's fine for me to use the word "you."
3) Anything in which you're instructing the reader to do something. This is why it's sometimes okay to use in persuasive essays - because you're giving a call-to-action; you're telling the reader he should go out and do something.
4) In certain forms of fiction writing - second-person perspective is rare, but does get used. Though if you're writing stories, stick with third-person for now; second-person is extremely tricky to get right in fiction.
ReplyDelete5) Any personal communication, such as emails or correspondence.
6) When you're quoting someone.
Guidelines for first-person.
1) Generally, you don't want to use "I"/first-person in academic essays. There are a few rare exceptions, but just stick with third person and the "one" rule. When you're analyzing you're supposed to be objective, which means you don't want to sound like you're injecting your own self into the piece.
2) Any type of personal piece, such as freewrites, personal experiences, journals/memoirs/reaction essays, or essay in which you're relating your own specific opinion that ties into a personal experience.
3)Fiction.
Third-person is basically appropriate most everywhere, depending on circumstances.
Although this post on cheese was well-written, I think the main thing is that it needs a focus. You're all over the place here, talking about it's history, your personal experience with it, what the reader should feel when he goes cheese-shopping, and general descriptions of it.
When you're writing an essay, there is usually a point behind it. Maybe you want to convince someone that Prop 8 is right or wrong. Maybe you want to recount a memory from your childhood. Maybe you're analyzing the use of metaphor in Fahrenheit 451. Maybe you're determining whether autism is correctly portrayed in The Curious Incident. Maybe you're writing an information topic that informs the reader.
However, you never write if you don't have any direction to go in - you never write _just because_. If I was writing about cheese, for example, I would choose a direction to go in. I would maybe make up a story about cheese, write a 1000 word description of cheese, describe a personal experience with cheese, debate the merits of cheese, go in-depth about a cheese controversy, discuss the role of cheese in French culture, talk about the role of cheese in books and film, inform the reader of how to distinguish betweeen good and bad cheese, etc.
However, I would only pick ONE of them to write about. I'd go expressly in one direction. I'd find a purpose behind writing the piece, and I would pursue it until I have achieved that goal, until I have been satisfied that I have finished what I set out to do in writing it.
So the next time you're writing, make sure you're very specific, and ask yourself, "What do I want to do, to accomplish, with this piece of writing? What is the main point?"