Rushan, a type of Chinese cheese made by the Bai people in Yunnan province, is commonly grilled or fried, and is often rolled with sweeteners. It is a unique and exotic item in a region where dairy products are not common.
Rushan is a unique type of Chinese cheese often called “fan cheese” due to its thin shape. This cheese is commonly made by the Bai people in Yunnan province in southwest China. Rushan is a cow’s milk cheese that is commonly grilled or fried, or eaten raw. It differs from another similar type of cheese called a rub which has a slightly different composition and which is used in the same Chinese communities.
Fan cheese is a cheese that is produced in thin, flat pieces with a leathery texture. To make this cheese, he commonly cooks chunks of cow’s milk with vinegar. The resulting curds are rolled into flat pieces and then often stretched over bamboo to provide the final result. While the use of this cheese may seem murky across the continent, experts have found that China includes over a million Bai, making Rushan cheese a familiar staple to a large culinary audience.
In many presentations of this cheese, the “fan cheese” is rolled together with other ingredients into a “stick” shape. Common sweeteners include honey, chocolate syrup or other confections. Alternatively, cooks could fry the cheese. This gives the cheese a very different texture, where deep fried rushan often becomes “flaky” or takes on a lighter texture. Each of these presentations is common in the street food of the local communities where Rushan hails from.
Those familiar with Chinese customs point out that dairy products are not common staple foods in the region. This makes rushan a somewhat unique and exotic item. Cheese is often part of a Bai “three-course tea” where the food is complemented by teas of various flavors and ingredients.
Although the global culinary lexicon offers few references to this type of cheese, rushan is an example of a distinctly ethnic dairy preparation. Considering the ways in which the Bai make this product can help cooks understand the full spectrum of roles cheese plays in world cuisine. Knowledge of this food can also prove useful in creating surveys of global cuisines for the modern culinary audience. Many would classify rushan as a hard cheese and not a soft cheese due to the way it is commonly made and the end result, where the chewy texture of the cheese makes it only useful for specific types of dishes.
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