Another highlight from my NYC trip this past weekend was stopping by the Essex Street Market, an indoor market in the Lower East Side. We were accompanying our foodie friend Bill on a culinary shopping spree. Essex has been around since 1940, and has recently experienced renewed interest from New York culinary enthusiasts - particularly during the past year alongside a bunch of re-openings and grand openings of some really sweet gourmet food stalls. While there will soon be a chocolatier to be found among the many tiny kiosks and counters in the Essex market, I was most excited to visit Saxelby Cheesemongers. Anne Saxelby not only sells cheeses, creme fraiche, ricotta, and several other dairy products, but she also ages many of her cheeses in an onsite cheesecave. She sources all her stock from within the United States.

So Anne was there when we stopped by and I asked her for a couple off-the-cuff recommendations for cheeses can be paired with dark chocolate. She smiled and exclaimed that there are so many choices! Here are two:

Pleasant Ridge Reserve: This Gruyere-style washed-rind cheese is made in Wisconsin from the milk of a single herd of cows. We tried a piece while we were at the market - the flavor was smooth and a little nutty.

Bayley Hazen Blue: She told me that the sweetness and tanginess of blue cheeses can make a really nice complement to dark chocolate, and recommended this Vermont blue as one that would pair particularly well.

Saxelby Cheesemongers has been doing a series of chocolate, beer, and cheese tastings the last Wednesday of each month at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village. The next one is on August 27th. The September event will feature the chocolate creations of Ellen Mirsky of emChocolatier. (Note that come October, the tastings will be held the first Tuesday of every month.) Anne also has a really great cheese blog at saxelbycheese.blogspot.com where she posts various tidbits about her experiences in the vast world of fine cheese.