An idle starter: cheese as poppies

 Very often I notice that people struggle to invent starters that then delude the guests' expectations. A starter shouldn't be too substantial, otherwise it is going to spoil the rest of the meal. Even in some expensive restaurants here in Edinburgh, I came across starters that were actually main courses: very complicated and misplaced. A starter, instead, has to be idle, lazy, capturing, even better if it falls within finger food. Starters are like the poppies into a corn field: it is the first scarlet element you perceive, but then you begin to notice all the rest, and then you are lost into the contemplation.

Vladimir Volegov, Picnic amongst the fields

(http://www.villagegallery.com/volegov.html)

 Starters are those allures that attire your attention and warm up your appetite. Today I have chosen different cheese, because they are extraordinary and indulgent, especially on crackers and oatcakes, easy to find and it is difficult to resist to their call!

A rose of crackers with cheddar 

and raspberry preserve,

gone in five seconds

Cheesy valley

(the european answer to the Silicon Valley)

goat cheese from Somerset (left), 

French Brie (horizon), 

Italian Parmigiano scales (front).

French creamy cheese with herbs, 

Tarallini from Puglia (the heel of Italy),

pistacchio, 

and Strolghino (the best salami in the world, 

BECAUSE it is made with ham)

Preaching to a cat, decoupage with poppy & ribbon,

no cheese in this shot :)