Blue Cheese Soup, an original recipe

The bulk of my mothers side of the family fled from Hungary in 1956. A few years later my great grandmother was called to Canada to help take care of the children, my mother and uncle. Thankfully, in-amongst the turmoil of fleeing their home and living as a refugee in a cold foreign country, my grandparents and great grandmother safeguarded a few wonderful traditions and personal quirks, not to be forgotten by future generations. I'm still not sure whether my memories of my childhood at my grandparents were spent learning traditions from the old country, or simply being indoctrinated by my grandfather with his own eccentric love affair with food.

For some reason this story only came about in the last couple of years, yet it characterizes my grandfather perfectly. After eating a diner which my grandmother had prepared, my grandfather and great grandmother would look at each other and wink, as my grandmother describes it. This was signal that it was time to slip away from the kitchen table and make their way to the garage where they kept The Cheese.

I never got a chance to experience The Cheese, and today nobody seems to remember what it was named (though to my grandmother, it has many nicknames), however we do know that it was kept in the garage on account of my grandmother not allowing it in her house, and that it was selected by virtue of its unique qualities which no other cheese available in Canada possessed. 

In my imagination, it has a delicate cream colored tone, interrupted by sharp cords of faded gray. Some might look at it and imagine it pulsates with terrible life, only biding its time before it unleashes its devilish powers on their palate. I see it as I would a beautiful slab of marble, its character a virtue to be relished, not avoided. It would, of course reek like the goddess herself, as all good blue cheeses should.

I should probably stop here and discuss the qualities that scare people away from blue cheese. There is aroma, texture, taste, and aftertaste. All the things you expect when you put something in your mouth for the purpose of consumption.

the aroma is strong, but not in itself unappetizing 
...... the texture is slimy and oily, yum
the flavor is like eating blue socks
and the aftertaste is there for hours.. unlike your friends
I will edit this section later, as without a hunk of cheese under my nose for inspection, I am finding it difficult to describe the peculiar character of good blue cheese without resorting to sarcasm.

However, if you like blue cheese, or even just the thought of blue cheese without my trying to sell you on it, then you're OK in my books.

I may never get to sample the cheese of my grandpas delight, however I did inherit a natural affinity for blue cheese. This recipe is a subtle reminder for those who have experienced the delights in the past, and a great starter dish for someone who is wary.

If you need more encouragement, which I am generally not apt to give, then know that this soup is consciously designed to accentuate the wonderful qualities of blue cheese, while minimizing the so called bad. In the end, there are enough other familiar flavors that the cheese takes on a fairly subtle role. 

And if it turns out, after all this that you simply don't like blue cheese, then at least you will be left with a substantially nourishing soup.
mmmmmm substantial nourishment