Beijing Palace cheese is the easiest to get your hands on. Photos: CFP and AFP

By Lin Yigu

My first taste of Danish blue cheese officially ended my pondering as to whether or not I would fall in love with strongly flavored cheese as I have done with that addictive Western import they call espresso. I cannot help but wonder if the tables will someday be turned for the Chinese cheese market: When Western friends rain praise on major Chinese cuisines, will they also love the Chinese counterparts of their beloved cheese?

Most foreigners have no idea that China has produced its own cheese for centuries—unless they have visited the remote areas where Chinese minorities specialize in cheese production. To generalize, there are four broad genres of Chinese cheese: Inner Mongolian cheese, Xinjiang milk knot, Dali milk fan and Beijing palace cheese.

Inner Mongolian cheese (alternatively called nan gai) is probably the most recognized Chinese cheese nationwide. As the final product is hard at the core and made of milk with traces of acid, Inner Mongolian cheese's taste is reminiscent of yogurt sugar. Because the cheese does not contain any water, it is easily stored for a long time and can be transported from Inner Mongolia to the rest of China,where expats are eager to try it, but often surprised by its unusual  flavor. Thomas Gall from England described it as being more like a sweet dessert than a piece of cheese.

Though one can buy it in big supermarkets and food chains nationally, the ultimate savory taste is best experienced on site at a shepherd's home in Inner Mongolia. The freshly-produced cheese is much softer and not as sweet as the product shelved for mass consumption.

Milk knot (or nai geda) is a type of ethnic food native to Xinjiang. Minorities of Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Mongol descent in that area enjoy this snack, and consider it a staple in their diet. Milk knot's flavor ranges from sweet to sour. The milk knots are usually produced by first fermenting cow milk or goat milk, then stewing them as chunks for a period of time before taking them out and leaving them to dry in the air. The local herdsmen prefer to have milk knot with milk tea. Some foreigners who have tasted the milk knot use the word "primitive" to describe its flavor.

Milk fan in Dali, Yunnan Province, is produced by the Bai minority and is not only a renowned snack, but also a popular dish at local banquets. Its appearance is both glossy and filmy, and it is offered in the shape of a fan. One can see local people in Yunnan toasting or frying the delicacy almost anywhere along the roadside before peddling the final product.

Palace cheese of Beijing, though nominally exclusively royal, is actually easily acquirable in Beijing and other parts of China. Sanyuan Meiyuan is the chain store that sells this kind of traditional cheese. The veteran staff in this store opened another cheese shop in Nanluoguxiang called Wenyu Cheese Shop, in which various traditional Beijing cheese and milk custards have helped the store earn high popularity here in the nation's capital. Palace cheese contains a certain volume of water, causing the cheese to remain fresh and soft to the point that its texture can often be likened to that of pudding.

According to Professor Guo Huiyuan of China Agricultural University, there is no substantial difference between Chinese cheese and Western counterparts. They all typically contain similar percentages of protein and fat as their main nutrients. Both Chinese and Western cheeses are commonly divided by their different level of hardness: soft, semi-hard and hard. Jenghiz Von Streng from Switzerland commented that the Mongolian cheese he tried was so hard that he "almost chipped a tooth."

To date, Chinese people, especially the Han majority, are not in the habit of eating cheese. This is mainly due to the fact that Han people lived in the middle plains of China and don't raise sheep, cows, or other livestock that produces human-consumable milk. The majority of these animals are reared on grasslands or in concentrated feeding animal operations in China's grasslands ranging from the North to the Northeast. Hence, the majority of Chinese citizens did not have many sources through which they can acquire fresh milk, which is the basic ingredient of cheese. This essentially explains why most Chinese cheese is made by minority Chinese as their spatial concentration is largely centered in the grasslands in remote areas that rely on dairy products as their daily food. Beijing cheese is not an exception, because it was originally brought to Beijing by the Manchu who founded the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

But for all that exalted status, Chinese cheeses are still are not particularly popular among foreigners or even most Chinese, largely due to lack of awareness and an underdeveloped market. Most Han Chinese are not accustomed to the ethnic flavor of Chinese cheese, or simply have no clue how to eat it properly. And China never characterizes cheese as a pivotal part of its food culture the way France, Italy, Spain, and even Britain and America do.

The lack of demand also damages the quality of cheese, so people's first tastes are not always what they could be. Because the demand for Chinese cheese is slim, the makers have to mix additives to the tender cheese so that it can be stored for a longer period of time so it won't go to waste if nobody buys it. That, of course, negatively affects the taste, which shrinks demand even further.

Today, Chinese cheese is simply waiting for some intrepid foodies who can remove it from the gloomy spiral as well as relative obscurity and help establish it in its rightful place maybe just before, or during, dessert.

Where to buy Chinese cheese?

1. The most convenient way to buy any kind of Chinese cheese should be shopping online. Related websites include Taobao.com and Womai.com. You can type in which kind of cheese you want in the search bar and choose the seller with the most satisfactory quality that can be seen from buyer's comments. Then you can pay by your bank card or COD.

2. To have the best Mongolian cheese, the very best way is to actually go to Mongolia, where it is sure to be good. In Beijing, you can buy it in the big supermarkets. For example, you can find Mongolian cheese on the first floor of Xidan shopping center, at the vegetable market of Chongwenmen, the Urban-Rural Trade Center in Fuxing Road etc.

3. While traveling is the best way to get fresh, authentic milk knot cheese, a number of Xinjiang specialty shops carry it here. Try the chain store named Avanty Bazaar with Beijing head store in Beitaiping Bridge, or another chain store named Ai Baiwei, which has one location besides Beijing Workers' Gymnasium and one besides Yayuncun.

4. In Beijing, Dali milk fan can be bought in Yunnan specialty stores, like the one in Xiaoxitian Road in Haidian district, or the one in the east gate of Taiping Road.

5. It is much easier to find genuine Beijing Palace cheese. In Sanyuan Meiyuan  store or Wenyu Cheese in Nanluoguxiang. Beside, the cheese store named Nailaowei in Niujie in Guanganmennei Street in Xuanwu District is also a good option for Beijing cheese.