Quark, quark

[TheOstrich]

So I get down to Asda, and head up the breakfast cereals aisle, scanning the shopping list painstakingly prepared by Mrs O this morning.

Carrots (6) - check
Pot of bio-yoghurt - check
2 x Oatilicious loaves - check
Quark - ......... errr..... What?

What on earth is "quark"?

- a sub-atomic particle? What aisle is that in, computing equipment?
- a model of the Ferengi character from Star Trek: Deep Space 9?
- a refined Home Counties duck - ("quark, quark" rather than "quack, quack")?

Thankfully Mrs O is at hand, browsing the paperbacks in the Book aisle.

It's a sort of cheese, she says. And lo and behold, there it is, in the appropriate section.

So I think it's going to be quark on toast for an evening snack when we watch Wycliffe on ITV3 tonight ....

Have you ever heard of the stuff?

[Kaz]

Ewwww is it like tofu?

I'd rather have runny Brie or extra mature cheddar

[tonicha]

Sounds like it should be waddlking somewhere

We have fresh cheese here - some of which don't half pong

[Workingman]

Quark on toast is so neutinotional that you'll be full up before you eat it.

[TheOstrich]

Well, I had two slices of quark on toast. Something and nothing, really - exceedingly bland.

Much prefer brie, like Kaz, or Long Clawson Blue Stilton, which is our cheese of choice at the moment .....

[Kaz]

Cheese just has to have flavour, doesn't it?

[tonicha]

The market in Castro Verde has two enormous cheese stalls - and you can try a slice of everything, before you buy.

Not the fresh cheeses, but hard, or soft, farm produced cheeses and they are sublime

Goat, beef, sheep a mixture of all two or three, smoked, unsmoked - oh, I'm dribbling

[Kaz]

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm

[Diflower]

Quark isn't proper cheese, it's just a softish white bit of nothing

[meriad]

LOL at you lot - Quark is a very normal part of daily life in Germany I'll have you know

Mom uses it as a low fat spread on bread with a dollop of jam on top - actually quite nice.

Alternatively as a very tasty and low fat dessert mix a tub quark with some milk so it's similar to yoghurt (maybe a teeny weeny bit runnier); add sugar to taste (not much) and a bit of vanilla essence and then if you want some berries or other fruit - really delicious. Go on try it

It's funny reading this thread because Quark is something I grew up