Last weekend while in NYC, I not only ate some of the best pizza in the world, I also visited the one of the best cheese shops in the world—Murray's Cheese Shop in the West Village (254 Bleeker St. NY, NY 10014).  Murray's has been open since 1940 and has gradually grown into the leading specialty cheese merchant to chefs and cheese lovers across the country.  It's a must-see-and-eat for any visit to NYC by a cheese lover like myself.

Murray's stocks about 250 different cheeses at any given time and between 500 and 600 over the course of a year with seasonal rotations.  Murray's also sells great meats and crackers and oils and other specialty products.  There's a ton of information about the shop and the products it sells on Murray's Web site.



My haul from my Monday morning visit is pictured right.  The Murray's Cheese Book, by shop owner Rob Kaufelt and his employee Liz Thorpe, profiles 300 different cheeses with suggested wine pairings for each and contains all sorts of fun facts about cheese.  It's touted by Tony Bourdain as "a definitive work by the unquestioned expert on the subject," and by Thomas Keller as a "fun" but "seriously informative book."  In addition to the book, I bought two French cheeses—Petit Billy goat cheese and Salers de Buron Affinage, made from the milk of the Salers red cow.  I also bought an Italian cheese I've never had before—Podda Classico—made from a mixture of cow's and sheep's milk on the island of Sardenia.  Finally, I bought a deliciously odiferous ball of smoked mozzarella from NYC's own Joe's Dairy.  Stay tuned for tales in the coming days of these cheeses being eaten . . . and tales in the coming years of my use of the Murray's Cheese Handbook.  And treat yourself to a visit to Murray's next time you're in Manhattan.