A mystery solved

More than a year ago, Christina bought a Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk
cheese from Star Grocery.  She brought it back to her apartment for us
to eat.  Even before we opened the package, we smelled a ripe,
sour-milk odor emanating from it.  We opened the package and the
cheese had turned an orangey color, and a slimy liquid had leeched out
of the wheel and had smeared all over the inside of the wax paper.
The smell quickly filled the whole apartment.  Christina tried to cut
off the stinky, soggy, orange rind, but it became clear the cheese was
too far gone even to salvage the very center, so we threw it out –
outside.  We were going to return to Star to ask for a replacement,
but never got around to it.

Up at Sea Ranch this past weekend, we all smelled a ripe, sour-milk
odor whenever we opened the refrigerator door.  We assumed that it was
the result of Mr. Gilbert's poor housekeeping.  But on Sunday morning,
as I was putting the unopened Red Hawk cheese into my bag to take back
to New York, I noticed a ripe, sour-milk odor emanating from it.  It
wasn't an altogether unpleasant smell, but it was noticeable.  Several
hours later, as Christina and I were waiting for our bags at the La
Guardia airport carousel, I smelled the same odor and realized my bag
was coming by.  It wasn't until we got home and put the smelly cheese
in the fridge that I put the two things – cheese and fridge –
together, and solved the mystery.

The moral? Maybe buy Red Hawk at Whole Foods or Village Market rather
than Star.  Christina thinks some things sit on the shelf a long time
there, and this would probably explain the reduced price on the
cheese; it had probably been there longer than the other two, more
expensive ones.  One time we had Red Hawk that wasn't spoiled, we'd
bought it at Whole Foods.  Turned out Elise really liked it, too.