It was an adamant priority, a couple of weeks ago while we were in Vegas, to get back to Enoteca San Marco for a cheese plate.  CHEESE PLATE.  This is the place that really introduced me to this amazing dish, and I’ve been on sort of a mission ever since to find others and sample as many cheeses from as many places with as many flavors as possible.  Sometime, I’d like to take a class – a cheese-tasting class, much like a wine-tasting class, and learn of the different regions and types of milk and textures that makes my favorites my favorites.

This restaurant in the Venetian opened my eyes to the idea of not simply cheese on a cheese plate, but the accompaniments that, well, accompany, the cheeses.  These side dishes of sweet and savory, light and textured, bring out the flavors and really highlight the different inflections in each of the cheeses.

My favorite pairings ever have been Truffle Oil Honey (OH MY GOD) and these beautiful brandied cherries.  BRANDY.  They’re sweet, but not too sweet.  They’re rich, saucy, and for a dessert wine-lover like myself, the brandy flavor is decadent.

And they photograph well, don’t they?

The best food memories I have of Las Vegas happened at Mario Batali’s Enoteca San Marco.  Why?

Because there was a cheese plate.

And we like cheese plates.

My initial reactions, as I wrote back on June 8, 2009:

One of the highlights of this past weekend’s trip to Las Vegas was the formaggi at Mario Batali’s Enoteca San Marco in the Venetian. We had the server choose the best 7 cheeses offered and were given this platter with the accompaniments that included Honey with Truffle Oil, Brandied Cherries, and Apricots.

Absolutely amazing. Oh, and then I followed this with an amazing Margherita pizza and paired it all with a pretty Friulian white wine

Delish!

(via my personal blog)

Their Margherita pizza was incredible also, but this marked my Real Good Cheese Plate De-Virginization, so that’s what I’m focused on here.