Freo Loves Stinky Cheese

10am Saturday morn and tills were unusually quiet in Galati’s. Instead the masses were milling around chatting over lively music. Watermelon juice dripping down fingers and crispy fresh arancini balls crunching whilst munched. Galati & Sons hospitality makes their annual cutting of the giant auricchio provolone quite the event. This stinky sharp cheese has been fattening up for months now, towering as it hangs in house from ceiling to solid ground.

With the aid of a Melbourne based cheese craftsman, the auricchio was gradually sawn down to size, block by heavy block. Along with the aid of sweat, wire, muscle, knives and a couple of ladders. No flowery speeches of grand words here. Just a bit of bell ringing with each ceremonial slice; a cheer from the crowd; and cheese – plenty of it. The snap happy mob celebrated a bit of ceremony and tradition with the extended Galati fam.

Registers were soon ringing again as bags marched out the door for $29.99 a kilo. Olive oil tastings and a musical duo offering further lingerings to the 150+ crowd passing through. Quote of the day came from a woman sampling the lorded cheese, who exclaimed, sarcasm free, “That’s awesome cheese! Tastes like stinky feet”.

First cab off the rank - a $26.83 hunk. Heavy stuff...

Galati & Sons on Wray Ave are a fruit n veg fave amongst locals. Love Freo reposted some recipes if you’re looking for inspiration.

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Where’s the cheese?

Anyone who has shopped at Galati’s for a period of time will be familiar with their biennial cheese celebration.
Basically, the story is this.
Every two years they import the most enormous cheese stick you’d ever have seen. Think a big cheese stick, like the size of a man. This is bigger!
They attach chains to the monster and hoist it off the grounds that it stands up vertically in their shop.
Over the next few months, the cheese continues to mature, expanding and necessitating further hoistings lest it burst all over the floor.
When it is matured their is a big celebration in the store, with special cheese-cutting experts being flown over from the eastern states.
This tradition is a significant part of Wray Avenue’s heritage.
Anyway, the latest cheese has arrived. I took this photo of them setting it up when I noticed them busy after-hours.