I just had lunch in Pizza Hut with my friends. It was so great! Especially the cheesy pizza, the smell was so tempting and you could see the melting cheese flowing out. Usually, I can eat the whole cheese pizza on my own, which is so joyful!
So do the Chinese eat cheese?
Yes! Chinese people do eat cheese! In fact, modern Chinese people are more and more fond of choosing foods made with cheese, especially those people who live in large urban areas like Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. Cheese in China is doing very, very well!
I believe several reasons are fuelling this situation:
- The upper-middle-class and affluent households have increased a lot in the past few years, being able to afford those imported products like cheese.
- The younger generations of China, born in 1980, are more willing to embrace the Western style of cooking and cuisines and have generally become the major consumer group in the market, generating more cheese-related product demands.
- Thanks to the powerful e-commerce and logistics capability in China, people nowadays are much easier to reach imported products like cheese which was considered a luxury in the past.
- The awareness of nutritious benefits is another key factor making cheese so popular in China since many people believe that eating cheese can help them supplement more protein, calcium, vitamin, and other important nutrients.
- Chinese people have found various unique ways to cook with cheese, localizing its taste of it. You know what? It does work! Most of the popular cheese foods in China are created or modified by natives, like “cheese-tea”, “cheese-chicken-chop”, “cheese-pot”, “cheese-meat-ball”, and so on.
However, it seems many foreigners still believe that Cheese is so unpopular in China and Chinese people don’t eat it at all, which is a bit shocking to me.
Why do people have this impression?
- For one thing, most foreigners might notice that although Chinese cuisine is world-famous, cheese is never part of it. It may seem cheese does not go well with Chinese recipes.
- For another, Chinese people are always considered lactose intolerant, being unable to consume too much milk sugar.
- What’s more, cheese is seldom produced domestically but imported from other countries such as New Zealand, so not everyone can afford to consume too many imported cheese products.
- Last but not least, foreigners might have also heard a lot of Chinese people are constantly complaining about the stinky smell of cheese, which makes them think Cheese is unpopular in China.
But those statements are simply too stereotyped!
If you had the chance to stay in China for a period of time, you definitely could feel the popularity of eating cheese in people’s daily life.
From time to time, I just can’t help but notice that there are various new cheese-related foods, or snacks, being launched to the market and you can see that as long as the store is selling cheese-related foods or products, the traffic is no longer a problem.
6 Popular Cheeses in China
Unlike many people from Western countries, like Europe and America, who enjoy directly eating natural artisanal cheese, Chinese people prefer processed cheese which is the result of melting and mixing different natural cheeses together with oil and food additives.
Since the smell and taste of natural cheese are hard to be accepted by most Chinese people, this kind of processed cheese characterized by its lightened taste and ease of use is getting more and more popular among local consumers in China nowadays.
Here are some most common cheeses to Chinese people:
Mozzarella
This is probably the most common retailed cheese in China. Its light taste and milky smell make it perfectly meet the stomach of Chinese people. Pizza made with Mozzarella is so welcome in China!
Cheddar
It’s the world’s most produced cheese and also is another most common cheese product in China. Various world-famous western fast food chains, like McDonald, are using Cheddar for their foods. FYI, western fast food chains are still popular in China, don’t miss that.
Parmesan
Chinese are increasingly intending to visit Western restaurants for real Western foods. Lots of Western restaurants in China prefer to use Parmesan, not only because it’s more proper to be used for fine cuisines, but also because it’s easier for people to digest and absorb.
Edam
Gently salty taste and with fresh smell, it’s probably the most suitable one for Chinese people to be the entry of the natural cheese world.
Gouda
Just like Edam, Gouda also belongs to the light one. With the flavor of nuts, can’t see any reason for the Chinese to not like it.
Brie
Made in French, Brie perhaps is the most famous one in the world, being called “the king of cheese”. Even though Chinese people are not big fans of cheese, they still can’t resist trying it when its title is this big!
7 Most Popular Chinese Cheeses
When most Western people consider cheese the major ingredient in their daily diets, Chinese people treat it more like a snack.
People love snacks and beverages made with cheese or included cheese flavors, such as milk tea or fruit drink covered with cream and cheese mix, cheese-flavored biscuits, cheese flavored ice cream, etc.
Following are the most popular Chinese cheeses.
1. Chinese Rushan Cheese
Chinese cuisine is not known for its use of dairy, but there are a few groups that have been making cheese in the country for centuries.
One of these cheeses is rushan, made by Bai people who live in the Yunnan province, in South Western China. Because of its shape, it’s also called a “milk fan”.
Rushan is made from cow’s milk and it’s a lot like mozzarella or even burrata. Instead of eating it fresh, it’s stretched and dried, and the dry cheese is deep-fried and scattered with sugar.
2. Chinese Rubbing
Also from South Western China, Rubing is another Chinese traditional cheese cuisine, made from goat’s milk that only can be found in Yunnan province.
Lightly fried Rubbing with a milky taste is always popular with those foreign travelers, bringing some western flavors to Eastern countries.
3. Cheese fish ball
Cheese fish ball is one of the most classic ingredients for hotpot among Chinese communities, especially for southern people. A lot of people tend to enjoy one or two when they’re having a hot pot.
You just need to put the fish balls in the hotpot and wait for around 5 to 10 minutes. After one bite, you can see the melting cheese flowing out of the fishball and the cheese is tasted mildly salted and soft.
4. Cheese tea
It may sound weird to foreign people, but cheese tea is a crazy popular drink in China. People are willing to line up for hours on end to get their hands on some!
It is an iced tea that can be made from many tea varieties, from oolong to green tea, topped with a mousse-like dairy layer an inch or two thick. The dairy layer is the soul of cheese tea, which is usually made of cream cheese and milk.
5. Chinese cheese tofu
Do you know there is one type of Chinese food that tasted pretty much like real natural cheese? It’s the fermented tofu blocks known in Cantonese as “fu yu”, unusual seasonings used in southern Chinese cookery.
Similar to cheese, fermented tofu is made when several molds are intentionally introduced to tofu and are allowed to grow for a few days. But unlike real cheese which is made from milk and/or cream, Fermented tofu is made from soybeans.
Because of the smell and the rich, funky flavor, fermented tofu is also called “Chinese cheese” by many people. In fact, not only because of its taste but also because the way to eat fermented tofu is somewhat similar to cheese as well.
- Chinese people like to eat fermented tofu with steamed buns, just as Westerners enjoy cheese with bread.
- Chinese people like to eat fermented tofu with congee, just as Westerners enjoy cheese with a glass of wine.
- Chinese people like to add some fermented tofu to certain cuisines, just as Westerners love to put lots of cheeses in their foods.
Tasting “Chinese cheese” is an interesting experience. You will feel the same way as cheese among other products. If you’re a huge cheese fan and had a chance to reach the fermented tofu, I hope you can try it and let us know what you feel about it.
6. Nguri
It is a buffalo’s milk cheese from Fujian province in China. Nguri normally is in a ball shape approximately the size of a ping pong ball. Its texture is soft and leathery. It is made by shaping with a cheesecloth the mixture of milk and vinegar that has been marinated in a salty brine.
I recommend you serve Nguri as a condiment to plain rice congee since it is very salty.
7. Chura Kampo
Chura Kampo is a Tibetan dried cheese made from soft curds resembling cottage cheese. From what I learned, if you want to make the cheese dara or buttermilk, you could boil and then cool to allow the whey to separate.
In Tibet, these whey curds are called chura loenpa or ser. I can tell that most people in Tibet do not add anything to the curd. They just eat it as chura loenpa or shape the curd to dry it.
