When in Wisconsin, it’s your moral imperative to eat all the cheese.

In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ll kick you out if you don’t. Or if you cheer for any football team other than the Packers (whew, I’m safe there).

And really is there anything more sinfully delicious than fried cheese with an irresistible pull that just begs you take a bite? I think not.

I was recently back in the North Country visiting my brother for his birthday weekend, so we tried two very unique takes on the humble cheese curd. There’s the monstrosity of cheddar on the left that was seriously the biggest fried cheese curd I’ve ever eaten (totally yummy), and when we were in Hudson a couple of days later for lunch, we tried cheese curds a little more on the refined side.

These are brie cheese curds with lingonberry ketchup. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the ketchup since I’m not a ketchup person (yes, I’m not even a fan of it with good ol’ American French fries), but it perfectly complemented the brie like the wheel of gooey Brie people serve with cranberry chutney at a party. SO good.

While I didn’t sample any cheese curds of the squeaky, non-fried variety this time around, I still thought about them. My favorite are the white cheddar  with herbs sprinkled throughout — guess I’ll have to save those for the next trip. 🙂