Is this Stokes first mention of cheese?
I believe it is, though it isn't the last time Stokes will refer to what is clearly one of his favorite delights.
Though in future references he won't go on quite so rhapsodically about it.
I thought that was a joke thrust upon the character by 'us'.
Definitely not - it certainly all stems from this ep. And to think that if it wasn't for the Sci-Fi Channel showings and then the subsequent releases of the entire show on VHS/DVD, we might have never been reacquainted with Stokes' deep love of cheese because this ep was never shown as part of Worldvision's 2nd year syndication package. Along with 5 other eps (spread out over the 2nd and 3rd years of syndication), it was completely skipped over by Worldvision - even though they were in possession of either the master tapes or the kinescopes of the eps. Who knows why they never included them? But then, despite repeated pleas from fandom to rearrange things, Worldvision originally included Ep #771 between Eps #511 & #512.
So...