# Is there any Chinese food with cheese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358 "2011-07-17T17:34:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/21 "2011-07-17T20:05:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Regardless, Indians are mostly lactose tolerant, and can eat dairy products without consequence. VChinese are very heavily lactose intolerant: > > [Lactose intolerance - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerant) Okay. I was just highlighting some of the circumstances. But I don’t think that lactose intolerance which is genetic, has much to with diets of neigboring countries. And I don’t see that dependence on high lactose food, which is basically cow’s milk, exists that widely outside of Europe. Europeans and Eastern Asians are the extremes. A simple explanation is that Europeans were dependent on milk for survival in long winters, and the Asians had no source of milk. I don’t contend that is the case, but the distribution of lactose intolerance based on your link doesn’t look surprising. Europeans consume a lot of milk, Chinese don’t consume any, and everybody inbetween uses limited amounts in forms that are not high in lactose. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/22 "2011-07-17T20:16:12Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Cheese is becoming more popular in China due to western influence. It’s not big in traditional Japanese cuisine either. Maybe historically both didn’t have much success or drive to keep domesticated cattle. The Wikipedia article on lactose intolerance also shows very high rates for these general ethnic groups. Starting all the way from keeping a cow, cheese is work. You’re not very likely to put in all the effort if you can’t stomach the final product, I bet. It’s true that cheese is growing in popularity, but it is actually kind of expensive in China. Basically, cheese is not popular and it costs more than here. Meanwhile, most other food items are cheaper, which makes cheese seem kind of like a luxury purchase. I bought some there, but none of my Chinese friends thought much of it. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/23 "2011-07-17T21:07:07Z")
If you consider Tibet to be part of China, I saw yak cheese being sold in several markets in the countryside. I assume that means they eat it. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/24 "2011-07-18T02:13:56Z")
Nowadays you can find incorporation of cheese in food throughout east Asia (ie cheese in oden - for reals - or okonomiyaki, Asianized gratin, etc) but traditionally, probably not so. My mom said that when she first came to America for grad school, she thought mac and cheese was so effing nasty, she wanted to vomit. And whenever my grandparents visit the US, they flat out refuse to eat pizza or anything with a large concentration of cheese. > [@blondebear](#): > > Okay, now I’m thinking of how I could add cheese to Chinese dishes. How about broccoli beef ‘n’ cheese? Yum! One well-known restaurant in Taipei serves bamboo drizzled with cheese to taste. It is actually pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/25 "2011-07-19T13:15:25Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I like it, but never even heard of it until I moved to SF from NJ - do they have it on the East coast? > > Joe All the Chinese carry-outs around me (Maryland) give you a half-dozen of them free when you order more than $20 worth of food. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/26 "2011-07-19T13:20:12Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > She didn’t specify traditional. Traditional or not, Rangoon is in Burma, not China. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/27 "2011-07-19T15:18:23Z")
A Chinese friend explained to me that for 8,000 years the Chinese have not had dairy in their diet. Eight thousand years I asked :dubious: and she said yes, eight thousand. Maybe her numbers are off but she is a Chinese woman and she won’t touch anything with any dairy. The Chinese simply do not have the ability to process dairy. (Which I am very glad not to be afflicted with that syndrome.) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/28 "2011-07-19T16:09:50Z")
> [@lukeinva](#): > > (Which I am very glad not to be afflicted with that syndrome.) Don’t you mean the reverse? It’s you European descended folks who inherited that freak mutation and spread it about the world. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/29 "2011-07-19T16:09:44Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Traditional or not, Rangoon is in Burma, not China. That’s okay… I doubt you could find any in either country. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/30 "2011-07-19T16:18:41Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Crab rangoon usually has cream cheese- that’s the only thing I can think of. But does it have crab? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/31 "2011-07-21T04:30:15Z")
traditionally in some of the minority (non Han Chinese areas). The Bai Nationality around Dali make and eat cheese. The Tibetans, if you consider them part of China, eat cheese from Yak and goat milk. Not sure about the Mongolians but I assume they also have cheese. There may be more but at least the Bai and the Tibetans have eaten cheese since time immemorial. ---
**Author:** ![RoeCocoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@RoeCocoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoeCocoa)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/32 "2011-07-21T05:06:05Z")
The local Panda Express offers “Cheese Rangoon.” I cannot vouch for its authenticity or its actual cheese content. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358/33 "2011-07-21T08:00:15Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > The Wikipedia article on lactose intolerance also shows very high rates for these general ethnic groups. Cheese has very little lactose, though. Lactose concentrates in the whey, not the curds. Romans were lactose intolerant, they drank milk to induce vomiting and even ranked the effectiveness based on livestock with horse milk the best, followed by cows. Yet cheese was a staple of their diet. Someone who cannot tolerate both cheese and milk is allergic to dairy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-chinese-food-with-cheese/589358.md?page=1)