Why is there never anything with cheese in it on a Chinese menu?

Crab rangoon has cream cheese in it.Why is there never anything with cheese in it on a Chinese menu?
That answer really doesnt explain why there is never anything with cheese in it on a chinese menu.



If all you wanted was to know something that does have cheese in it..you should have asked that question!

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I don't want Chicken %26amp; Cheese balls personally.Why is there never anything with cheese in it on a Chinese menu?
I'll bet in many Asian communities, cheese is a luxury.



The cuisines are developed around what's plentiful and popularly enjoyed.



After reading several post that followed mine, please allow me to apologize if I offended anyone. I didn't mean to imply that any country is rich or poor, but that maybe "cheese" is just one of those products that isn't produced a lot and, so, isn't as readily available. I'll admit it's just a guess, and some of the other posts provided more info to enlighten us. Again, I'm sorry if my answer was offensive to anyone.
because it's not Italian food!
ahmmm.... they have won-tons w/ cream cheese...thet is the only thing i know of
no cheese is native to china
The story is that traditionally not a lot of dairy products were used in Chinese cuisine, cows/cow products/beef not being a popular agricultural product, while pigs on the other hand, get used from their snouts to their toes.

The amount of land and resources it takes to raise cows is much more than is needed to raise pigs...pigs will eat anything (swill)...whereas cows need to graze...and therefore need the space to graze.

Chickens/ducks are also relatively simple to accomodate as opposed to cattle, so poultry is also big in China.

You must also consider chinese cooking methods...particularly stir-frying. This method of cooking usually involves cutting meat and/or veggies into small pieces and cooking over high-heat....now can you imagine how sticky a wok would get with melted cheese...let alone trying to eat melted cheese with chopsticks!

Basically cheese has never really had much of a place in Chinese culture, so its not really used much in the cuisine.

The milk that is produced in China is mostly reserved for babies and older people that can't eat solid food so well.

Many people in China are lactose intolerant too, so dairy foods are avoided by many.

But, cheese is catching on in China...they have pizza Hut, you could get cheese on your burger in McDonalds, you can even get some cheeses in the supermarkets there now, but the cheese industry is tiny in China compared to somewhere like the USA.

There are a few 'chinese' dishes available in the USA with cream cheese in them...such as Crab Rangoon...but these are really Chinese-American dishes...fusion food if you like.



Oh and i forgot to mention...

the word Cheese....is very much like the cantonese word for pig-sh*t (its pronounced something like chee-sz!)
I think Sight is correct. Most Asians, from what I've heard, are lactose intolerant. That isn't a racial statement, its what I learned in a biology class. I am lactose intolerant, but cheese doesn't affect me the same as drinking milk.
I like Sight's answer. I have wondered about cheese and asian cooking for years and have tried to design a fussion of the 2 but the taste/texture combination just doesn't work for me.
TO: Mr My bear is ron, whatever, cheese is NOT a luxury. Korea just HAPPENS to be richer than AMerica, and JAPAN is more advanced than America will ever be in technology, and cheese is not in the cuisine because WHEN IT WAS FIRST INTRODUCED, people in china thought it was ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. And personally, I just don't like sweet and sour soup with cheddar.
To start, cows aren't native to China. There's water buffalo and oxen, which are close but not the same thing. Also, in ancient rural China for obvious reasons, there was no surplus of milk and thus no need to develop methods of preserving or storing surplus milk. (Such as cheese or butter.) Since there was no cheese, cheese isn't used in chinese dishes.
It is simple, Chinese cuisine do not use cheese, because this is something that was popularized in the Western world. This is something that was not available in China and therefore it was never a part of our cuisine. Plus, the style of cooking and ingredients that Chinese people use would not mix well with cheese.



It has nothing to do with being lactose intolerant or not, and it's not true that most Chinese people are lactose intolerant.



Try asking all the Chinese people in the world who loves ice cream if they're lactose intolerant.