(image ganked from here)

You know what's a great snack that doesn't immediately pop up on the radar for most people?

Cheese curds.

Admittedly, mostly cheese curds (pictured above — doesn't that look cool?) aren't hitting peoples' snack-radar because they tend not to be widely available outside of Minnesota, but that doesn't make them any less delicious.  They're like cheese!  But in its knobbly-yet-primal state!

Because New York is New York, it does contain cheese curds despite not being Minnesota.  But they were all the way downtown at Murray's on Bleeker or at the Saxelby Cheesemongers in Essex Market to get them — not the easiestly acquirable snack. 

But!  Now there is Beecher's Handmade Cheese, which has arrived just down the street and will sell you as many cheese curds as your heart desires.  As a bonus, you can also watch them being made, which is reminiscent of that Sesame Street making-crayons video, except with cheese instead of colored wax.  How neat is that?

Also recommended?  Beecher's mac&cheese.  It is delicious!  And they sell (vegetarian) tomato soup to go along with it, making a variant on the perfect lunch experience.