Cheese

[tysond]

Cheese. A lot of my students don't like it unless it's on something in a small-ish amount like when it's on a hamburger or pizza. Equally, there idea of 'cheese' is usually plasticy burger cheese with little flavor.

 

 

So basically exactly the same as the USA then?

 

[ I'm kidding!  I'm kidding!  Unless you are European in which case you know exactly what I'm talking about ]

[GaHanna]

Tysond, exactly. In fact, the product that goes into burgers are not allowed to be called cheese (I think they actually have a percentage of cheese in single percentage figures) by the Trading Standards people in the UK. The manufacturers get over this by calling them "Cheese Slices".

[renzhe]

[ I'm kidding! I'm kidding! Unless you are European in which case you know exactly what I'm talking about ]

I do. When I was in Canada, people got the impression that I was really into cheese and I never understood why, since I would rarely eat it. It seems like cheese is eaten much more in Europe than in North America. Australia, though, they had some awesome cheese...

I know very few Chinese people who would touch French or Swiss cheese. Many Chinese are lactose intolerant, and complain that cheese makes them puke.

[Meng Lelan]

I wandered into this discussion and am almost wondering if this thread is going to get split into a separate topic entitled "Cheese".

[renzhe]

I guess it was getting too cheesy for the Chinese Society subforum...

[Angelina]

Cheeseee

Because it's difficult to find cheese in China.

[roddy]

Gahanna, I'm pretty sure if the cheese content is THAT low they have to be 'cheese flavoured' - some are labeled like that, and they wouldn't do it unless they had to. However cheese slices are definitely plasticky processed cheese. 

 

PS 'Cheese' - 'other cultures' - geddit?

[Angelina]

Okay, in my culture I would eat cheese for breakfast, cheese for lunch, cheese for dinner. Other cultures more welcoming to my dietary habits? 

[Lu]

Come to Holland. I didn't do anything special for breakfast or lunch but I've already seen six types of cheese today (and eaten three of them).

[ChTTay]

How did my quote start a whole new thread?

 

A teacher where I work brought in some blue cheese for students, thinking 'well, they said they like cheese' ... as soon as it touched the first students tongue, coughing fit for 5 minutes, that piece straight in the bin.

 

I also see these weird "flavoured cheese" things in supermarkets too. I've never bought any but it looks like spreadable cheese but with strawberry flavor etc They target children and I recall seeing spongebob on the front at one point!?!

[roddy]

Oh god, I'd forgotten about Chocolate Cheese. 

[Shelley]

One of my cats absolutely loves "plastic cheese slices" only way to painlessly get pills into her, the others quite like it too.

[889]

Shouldn't we change the title of this thread to "Slices" or something similar which, like the object of the discussion, is totally without cheese?

 

http://www.dollarstoreproduct.com/Spec-AmericanCheeseSlices.html

 

It does have a shelf life of 365 days.

[Demonic_Duck]

The Americans I've met call processed cheese “American cheese”, which is weird to me because countries normally disown their worst exports.

 

Anyway, one other cheese-related disappointment for me in China is that whenever I hear someone saying they bought cheesecake I'm always momentarily excited, until I remember that Chinese “cheesecake” is actually a highly mediocre style of sponge cake which tastes vaguely of cheese, rather than the gooey-biscuitey-cheesey goodness that is true cheesecake.

[Meng Lelan]

Oh god, I'd forgotten about Chocolate Cheese. 

 

 

 

I used to make that when I was a kid, we would use cream cheese though. It's real good! Not sure if the kind they make in China would taste that sweet though.

[OneEye]

Oh God, the chocolate cheese is just too much! Absolutely vile. Surely that's worse than anything the US has ever done to cheese? Though we're probably the ones who made it possible.

 

I have to admit, that's one thing I don't miss about Taiwan. My local grocery store here in Tokyo has a really great selection of cheese. You can even find good yoghurt here fairly easily. When I was looking for Greek yoghurt in Taipei, I ended up buying from a Greek-Canadian guy who was making his mom's recipe in his apartment and would meet you outside an MRT station to sell it to you drug-deal-style. It was really good, but it shouldn't be that hard to find.

[Angelina]

Come to Holland. I didn't do anything special for breakfast or lunch but I've already seen six types of cheese today (and eaten three of them).

 

Not a bad idea. Holland: good education, generous fellowships, good cheese, access to Chinese culture. 

[Angelina]

Greek-Canadian guy who was making his mom's recipe in his apartment and would meet you outside an MRT station to sell it to you drug-deal-style

  

Or if you live in Greece or the neighbourhood, you wake up, your mom makes you Greek yoghurt, end of story. 

[liuzhou]

The worst I have come across was when I was talking with a Chinese friend and she insisted I could buy real blue cheese in town. Off she ran and returned minutes later with this:

 

 

Yes. Spreadable plastic flavoured with blueberries. Truly disgusting.

[Meng Lelan]

Great thread. So glad I asked to have it split off into a cheese thread. You know, like string cheese, how you can split it off again and again.