Following up on last week’s post on our holiday take on a Manhattan the massive Thanksgiving party we were lucky enough to attend, we wanted to give a brief mention to one of the many relishes dishes that were featured as part of the celebration—the vegan cheese spread.
Provided by hosts Erica Kubersky + Justin Lamb, we’re told that the overall spread was “played down” from last year’s, but it was, by our estimate, nonetheless the largest array of vegan cheeses we’d seen ever, likely. In this day of what we’ve before described as a bit of a vegan cheese revolution—most recently on our piece covering vegan cheese slices and then with various pieces on one of our favorite newcomers, Miyoko’s Creamery (on the company’s products in general and on their Mt. Vesuvius Black Ash cheese in specific)—the cheeses that impressed us the most this Thanksgiving were from one of the vanguards of vegan cheeses, Brooklyn’s Dr. Cow.
Dr. Cow was the first company to introduce raw vegan nut cheese to the market, beginning to sell their small, cultured cheese wheels in select New York stores year back. Now, the couple behind Dr. Cow sell at locations nationwide, having expanded their line to include sweets, jams, and spreads, and offering larger, more experimental cheese out of their 6th Street Williamsburg shop.
Erica dropped by the shop and picked out five aged nut cheese: a cashew, pumpkin seed, zucchini cheese (pictured above); a smoked balsamic salt cheese; a crazy interesting, amazing cashew blue made with West Indian shilajit, cordyceps, and hibiscus; an equally interesting, dark, dry macadamia reishi; and a hemp, chili, sesame cashew cheese (all pictured below). To the right, an illustration from Dr. Cow of the raw nut cheese process.
If you haven’t Dr. Cow a try, you’re overdue. You can find stockists on their Web site, but if you’re in New York, drop by their shop to get the really good stuff; they’re open every day but Monday.
