Having trouble with today's NYT strand? Today's theme, “Got any bleu cheese?” is going to be a problem for those from outside the US

Below are some helpful hints and what-if answers for Strand #217 We will start with the hints and then lead you to the full answer to Strand #217

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #217

The official theme for NYT Strands #217 is “Do You Have Blue Cheese?”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “A good lunch”

If you're still not sure, here are some handy words that give valuable hints:

Still having trouble? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions Today it starts with “C” and ends with “D”

Scroll down to find out what it is

COBBSALAD

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

Drumroll, please

Spangram was a cobb salad

Strand #217

“Do you have blue cheese?”

???

?

?

Hello Strand fans If you don't live in the US like I do, you will have a hard time with this piece In fact, I only discovered Cobb salad thanks to the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode, otherwise I might have been here all day

But just knowing a dish exists doesn't mean you know what's in it I had to use two clues to get me on the right path Thankfully, the word “salad” caught my eye at this point, so I followed the possible words starting there and eventually ended up at COBBSALAD spangram

This split the board in two, but my complete lack of knowledge of what a cobb salad contains did not help, and I had to resort to a painful spell of trial and error I could see the word TOMATO on the left side, which gave way to GREENS between it and the spangram, and that side was complete

There were only two words on the right side, and with CHICKEN at the top, all that remained was to decipher the remaining letters into one long word, VINAIGRETTE

As fun as yesterday's puzzle was, this one was a struggle Hopefully I'll have more fun tomorrow

Are you reading this late in the day? You can find yesterday's article on Strand's solution to Round 216 here