If you like cheese, you are going to love Neal's Yard Dairy. This store is devoted entirely to cheese, which may sound silly if you are unfamiliar with cheese's long history and the many different kinds of cheese that are made.

The store is almost always bustling with people. Neal's Yard is staffed with cheese experts who are responsible for maintaining the store's proper climate and advising people on the cheese. The humidity and the temperature have to be just right to maintain the cheeses and it was surprising to find out that typical refrigeration is not the best temperature for cheese. It is best served slightly warmer to get the full flavor of the cheese.

The counters were a cool slate to help keep the cheeses at the best temperature and there were little cards noting the types of cheese, the prices, the names of the makers, and the originating dairy farm. Almost all were from dairies in the United Kingdom.

Cheese expert extraordinaire, Martin, shared with us the history of cheese in England. While Sarah asked him some questions, I crept around the store with my camera like a devious little mouse trying to get some funky shots of the various blocks and mountains of cheese. Martin also explained the process of making cheese and why some are soft, some are hard, some are blue and pungent while others are mild and creamy.

It was very interesting to find out that not all cheese is considered vegetarian. In order to become firm, or coagulate, cheese needs something called rennet. Rennet can be animal-based or vegetarian rennet. Martin was there to explain which cheeses were made with the traditional animal rennet.

Of course, we got to sample some cheese.  The flavors were very distinct, and some had funny names like Ticklemore, Orkney, and Stinking Bishop. There is nothing bland about eating a Neal's Yard cheese. It's a delicacy.

"Do you not smile at this?" (from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure)

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