There’s an online quiz out there brought to you by our friends at The Telegraph that tests your abilities in differentiating the names of cheeses and the names of diseases. And it’s trickier than you might think. Do you know the difference between “Devon Blue” and “dysentery,” or between “feta” and “influenza”? “That’s preposterous!” you poo-poo. “Of course one is obviously a cheese, and the other is obviously a disease.”
Ok, try this one: “Erdheim-Chester.” Sounds whimsical. Springtime sun shining on the snow-capped Alps. Black and white dairy cows grazing peacefully on the sides of wildflower-covered mountains, mooing with a just-slightly-detectable hint of a Swiss accent as cheesemakers in impossibly-idyllic cottages handcraft wheels and wheels of Erdheim-Chester, a slicing cheese just perfect for cheeseboards at intimate dinner parties. Cue Rossini’s aptly-named “A Call To the Cows.” Right?
Wrong.
Turns out Erdheim-Chester is a disease. And a nasty one, too, that typically involves the abnormal multiplication of white blood cells—hardly dinner party conversation, much less a type of cheese.
What about “Galleybagger”? Didn’t your mother’s great uncle’s brother’s neighbor suffer from that? Au contraire! Galleybagger is actually a type of unpasteurized cheddar cheese from the Isle of Wight off the coast of England.
Test your cheese-or-disease knowledge (don’t worry, even we got tripped up on a few!) and good luck! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11365233/Quiz-cheese-or-disease.html
Feature Photo Credit: Cheese—Mumumío via Compfight cc; Disease—commune_absence_giboyeuse via Compfight cc
Michelina DelGizzi
Michelina DelGizzi, MS, MPH, is a writer and caseophile based in Boston and Lafayette, La.
