The cheeses are divided into two basic categories: mozzarella and everything else. Put another way, the categories are cheese the Laraia family makes, and cheeses they buy elsewhere.

The store produces 48 different kinds of mozzarella on-site: salted, in water, smoked, marinated, and a dryer mozzarella for baking. They offer a range of seasonal shapes (mozzarella snowmen in winter, mozzarella lambs and bunnies around Easter) and specialty combinations destined for buffet tables and party platte! rs, like the walnut-sized bocconcini stuffed with tomatoes, olives, or jalapenos, or the mozzarella rolls, with sheets of cheese coiled around savory fillings like sun-dried tomato or prosciutto.

No matter what the configuration, if you waved these cheeses in front of a cow, she'd sniff curiously, look around, then call out a tentative "Mom?" Laraia's mozzarellas smell and taste like fresh whole milk - only more so.

The flip-side of the fresh mozzarella is the broad array of aged cheeses, all cut fresh from the wheel, and all available for sampling. These include a three-year-old California cheddar from the Fiscalini dairy, with the kind of dry nuttiness you'd associate with a good Swiss cheese, and and one of the store's more popular non-mozzarellas: Old Amsterdam, a gouda so well-aged it's almost chewy. You'll pay more than supermarket prices for many of these cheeses, with per-pound costs ranging in the teens for some. But the friendly "try before you buy" po! licy means you know exactly what you're getting, and part of what you' re getting is a cheese education.

When was the last time you had the chance to sample not one but two varieties of gjetost, the dense, almost fudge-like Norwegian cheese made from caramelized goat's milk? Also, with many of these cheeses, the flavors are so intense that a modest amount goes a long way. The Danish blue, for instance, is almost overwhelmingly pungent on its own, but it stands up beautifully when crumbled into a salad of greens, sliced pears, and toasted nuts.
Laraia's Cheese Co., 5 Seeger Drive, Nanuet. 845-627-2070. Open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

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Record Number: wst2006061610184220