How to Be Happy

Life, Love, and Cheese

By Robert Lillegard

Is there anything more romantic than cheese?  You could say wine, perhaps – but think carefully.  There's a reason the two are paired together.  Like wine, cheese is found throughout the world, and like wine, it's as old as history.  Infinite in variety and deeply complex in flavor, wine and cheese complement each other.

I'm from an old cheese family.  When my great-grandparents got off the boat in New York City, cheese was all they had. They'd lost Sicily, and they'd have to lose their language, but they could hold on to their mozzarella and their Parmesan – and their Romano, and their provolone, and their ricotta, and their mascarpone.

There's something about cheese that brings people together.  It makes me think about New Year's Eve in Germany, when I was just out of high school.  As an irresponsible exchange student, I had irresponsible friends, and my best friend was the worst of all.

Anatol was my age, a red-haired drifter from Russiabalanced between living at home and sleeping in basements. Anatol was lewd when girls were not around, and incredibly shy when they were.  He was a tall, skinny guy with an awkward grin, quick to fight but quick to hug.  

On New Year's Eve in Germany, most people buy fireworks or go out to bars.  I couldn't pay for that kind of thing, and neither could my other friends Nena and Hendrik.  Anatol was the poorest of us all – he rode the trains without tickets and could barely scrounge for a cigarette.

But on New Year's Eve, he wanted us together.  With no champagne to toast with and no fireworks to fire, Anatol brought out Raclette.  This Swiss melting cheese is also the name of a cooking style.  You chopped up ingredients, put them in little metal wedges, laid Raclette on top, and put them under a boiler.  When the cheese melted, you ate.

Our little trays were nothing like the trays other people had.  Some people had wild mushrooms, fresh game, and chives; we had hard-boiled egg and unripe tomatoes.  But we drank cheap beer and joked around together.  And when we took out the Raclette, it was the same melting joy.

When we were done, we went outside for a walk and watched the fireworks, which glowed brilliantly in the dark sky.

 

This article appears in its entirety in the April 2008 issue of Duluth~Superior Magazine.
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