Cheese and chocolate

I started a new tradition on my trip to Austin this weekend.  In cities I visit, I'll find a good local place for artisan cheese and chocolate, then find a park to eat them.

In Austin I found Edis' Chocolates and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.

Edi is fairly short and very friendly.  She makes truffles, cookies, flourless cakes, and even a mini baguette, which I picked up thinking it would go well with the cheese I'd buy later.  I got six truffles: Grand Marnier, Mexican Vanilla, Coconut (not so much for me), Black Salt, Chocolate, and Almond.  Guess what was the best truffle.  Chocolate.

If this is changing between lots of different pictures of truffles, I don't know how, but I like it!

Antonelli's was the best cheese shop I've been to.  Their cheese case is laid out in the order it's best to sample the offerings, starting with fresh cheeses, moving to the softer ones, and then going gradually firmer and sharper until you get to the bleus at the end.  I tried and bought some of the best Gruyere ever, which did go excellently with that baguette.

The staff is smart about cheese and friendly, even offering us a sample of chocolate with almond brittle, knowing that we'd already bought our chocolate allotment at Edis'.  They also had some Beehive cheeses from Utah.  That Gruyere, by the way, was $20 per half pound.  Somehow I didn't notice the "half" on the sign, so it cost twice as much as I thought.  Worth it.

And somehow on December 2, Austin was sunny and 80 degrees, the perfect weather for a great picnic.