Akash:

David’s been acting pretty smug recently. Not just the normal “I’m-a-math-genius-look-at-my-Putnam-score” smug, or the “I like to measure all my ingredients to the microgram” smug. It’s most likely for the following:

Not only has he gotten me into an Indian restaurant, he’s actually got me to the point where I will happily pick up take out and bring it home for dinner. You may remember a while ago when I made him an Indian welcome back dinner and nailed it, despite never having eaten at one before.

Well, I finally caved and let David take me to Ambar on Ludlow last year, so I could try some of what is arguably the best Indian in the city. I tried the lamb korma and dal makhani, and it was indeed fantastic. I grudgingly admitted to David that I'd been foolish to have held out for so long.

And since then, I’ve been stopping by Akash, an Indian restaurant downtown, nearly every other week. I’m slowly trying new things on the menu, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised each time. For instance, why wasn’t I told about paneer pakura — which is basically a deep fried cheese nugget — sooner?

erhmagerd fried cheese nuggets

I think Akash does most of their business during lunch, because when I pick up my takeout in the evening, it’s always quiet. Service is fast and efficient, and I usually stick with my now favorite dish, the lamb korma. It has tender lamb, a tangy cream sauce, raisins, and my favorite nut, cashews, which I always get ridiculously excited about when I find them in a forkful.

David bounces around a little, getting vegetarian dishes, as we also usually get one of their flatbreads.

David's saag vegetarian selection

Though the food is always delicious, we have noticed the spice level depends on who is in the kitchen, and now have settled on a “2” on the 1-6 scale to stay on the safe side. We’ve definitely come a long way from when I was hesitant to even set foot in an Indian restaurant. Now David just has to convince me to order something other that the lamb korma!

Fat chance, David.

Cheese Party, take two:

As most of my friends and close acquaintances know, I have a little bit of a cheese problem. While some people can rattle off football or baseball rosters from memory, I have a lineup of what cheeses are available at which local stores. The cheese drawer--dedicated in its entirety to delicious varieties of fromage--overfloweth with wedges. I’ve bought an entire half wheel of cheese from the Party Source, and I don’t regret one penny of the eighty plus dollars I forked over for it.

Which brings me to the press release I received a few weeks ago. Many bloggers receive releases and pitches from PR agencies and companies looking for a leg up or some free publicity. In exchange, bloggers are sometimes offered free product to review or giveaway to their readers. I try to stay away from the giveaways, as there are other blogs in Cincinnati that are more into that kind of thing.

But the email below caught my attention. Applicable to my interests, clearly written, courteous. And a locally based company to top it all off. This is probably the one of the best pitches soliciting a post I have ever received.

“Hi Laura!

I saw on FoodBuzz that you are a Cincinnati blogger (or perhaps mentioned it in some way), and I was wondering if you would like to review our biscuits. We are a Cincinnati based company.

Daelia’s Biscuits for Cheese were created to enhance the cheese eating experience, whether the cheese is made locally or imported from around the world. Launched in 2009 at the American Cheese Society Conference in Austin, Daelia’s Biscuits for Cheese is still a new company. We currently offer three biscuits – Almond Raisin, Hazelnut Fig, and Pumpkin Seed Rye. All biscuits are twice baked and made in small batches to guarantee the perfect texture. They also contain carefully selected fruits, seeds, and nuts, and pair well with a variety of specialty cheeses. Our biscuits are all natural, high in fiber, low in sodium and crunchy – the perfect addition to any cheese plate.

Our biscuits are available in Whole Foods nationwide and various independent cheese shops. They can also be purchased online at www.igourmet.com.

Would you like to review our biscuits? We would be happy to send you some samples to review if you are interested in working with us. We would also be willing to offer samples as a giveaway to one of your readers. We only ask that you require readers to follow us on Twitter as an entry in the giveaway. Please encourage them to use our hashtag - #biscuitsforcheese. Also, suggesting that readers like Daelia’s Biscuits for Cheese on Facebook would be nice, just don’t make it a giveaway entry – promoting Facebook in a giveaway is now against Facebook’s Terms of Service.

We also encourage creativity in your review! We would love to know what cheeses you would pair with our biscuits with and why. You could also use our biscuits in a unique recipe to give readers other ways to use our biscuits. Feel free to really make this review your own. We would be more than happy to promote your review on our Facebook and Twitter pages (we have over 1,800 Facebook fans!) after it has been posted.
If you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact me so we can send samples your way.

Thank you for time!”

While I still wasn’t willing to start doing giveaways, I thought that there might be another way to do a post, try out the biscuits, and eat some of my favorite cheeses with good friends. So I decided to throw another cheese party.

I also had done some inventory of our beer stash, which has been growing steadily for the past year, and decided that it was time to crack open some of the rarer and more interesting beers we’ve been saving to pair with the cheese and biscuits.

Tripels bottled in 2005 and 2006, and a nice Quaff Bros. collection

Kitty supervising the beer sorting

Tulum and Humboldt fog

I invited several friends, asking them to bring themselves, and their smartphones, and to tweet any thoughts about the biscuits. There were, of course, workbooks, complete with crosswords, coloring pages and wordscrambles.

Fancy Dolly Parton Pride Mouse by Maria

Some of our favorite combinations of cheese and biscuit are below.

Tulum with fig + hazelnut biscuit
Almond + raisin biscuit and salami with smoked mozzarella
Merlot BellaVitano with pumpkin +rye biscuit
Humboldt fog and hazelnut +fig biscuit
Hazelnut + fig biscuit and proscuitto and Beemster Vlaskaas
Hazelnut +fig biscuit and Habanero Jack

While I think these should be called crackers instead of biscuits--David was thoroughly confused until I showed him the website--whatever you call them, these are good. The ingredient list is also refreshing; no weird chemicals or preservatives. David also made some bread, which had a fantastic crunchy crust.

Smoked Mozzarella, 2 Year Cheddar and Habanero Jack

Everyone seemed partial to the pumpkin and rye biscuits, but David and I cast our vote for hazelnut and fig. Almond and raisins were also good, though they’ve got a little black pepper kick.

pretty, tasty biscuits

Vlaskaas, BellaVitano and Butterkase

mozzarella with spices

pickled veggies

David and I picked up another package of the hazelnut and fig at Whole Foods the other day, which we are looking forward to opening. The next day after the party, I lined up the damage on the counter, which is impressive.

Custom beer cups

the damage