I don't get out much these days beyond the local watering-hole, but the limited circle of restaurants I have gotten around to visiting in 2011 served me up some awesome cheese-centric dishes. Here are my top six menu items featuring CHEESE in Boston/Cambridge:

Deuxave (Back Bay) besides being generally delicious, serves goat cheese & potato croquette with their steak. If you're wondering, that means creamy whipped potatoes are mixed with goat cheese and then fried. Screw the steak, these croquettes are freakin amazing.

City Girl (Inman Square) serves a tasty brunch in their tiny space on Saturdays and Sundays, part of which is a goat cheese bacon & caramelized onion egg sandwich. Yup, it's really good. Mostly because it combines three of my favorite ingredients (bacon, goat cheese, caramelized onion). You should try it.

The Marliave (downtown) serves a rarebit that will probably do damage to your life span, but it's totally worth it. Cheddar, fontina and Gruyere are melted in a skillet with some beer, and topped with bacon. Yers please.

Thelonious Monkfish (Central square) makes cranberry crab rangoon. If you think this doesn't sound good, I'm afraid you're wrong.

The Salty Pig (Back Bay) has a huge selection of cured meats and cheeses that kept my friends and I entertained for the evening. The cheese is served in generous portions with toast - we had Moses Sleeper, Stilton, and Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise....all crowd pleasers. Win.