List Item: Try as many of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die as possible
Food item: Paski Sir
Progress: 771/1001
As you guys know, I am a semi-regular visitor to Borough Market as a way to scratch the ‘try new food’ itch. This 1001 list really got me into visiting food markets and I will always be grateful for that. In all these visits I have been regularly checking the ‘Taste Croatia’ stand for this list cheese for as long as they have been there (which would be about 2 years at this point). Finally, they had it – a lot of it.
Unlike the rock samphire, that I ate nearly straight away, I waited for a few days before eating this cheese – which became part of a Christmas Eve cheeseboard. Well, it was meant to – we only had this cheese in the end because there was a lot of other foods on offer.
ANYWAY. Paski Sir is a hard sheep milk cheese from the Croatian island of Pag. This is one of two food items that is specifically native to the Balkans (the other being Plum Slatko, a type of preserve that can be found in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia) as well as being one that I’ve been trying to find for a long time.
This cheese, like Parmigiano-Reggiano, is a bit of an umami bomb. By that, I mean it is a burst of savoury flavour on your tongue. It’s a bit dry on the tongue with the flavour only being released once you actually bit into it and wet it with your saliva. This lead to a tangy, salty and slightly buttery taste which would have probably been nice in a toasted sandwich.
Before I Kick 