Why is dairy not used in chinese cooking?
It’s not a “scientific” reason, nor is it a matter of choice on the part of Chinese chefs. It’s just cultural/geographical selection. Traditionally, there isn’t much of a dairy industry in China (I’m talking all throughout history, not just the past couple hundred years). No dairy industry equals no milk and no cheese. There is quite a large seafood industry (again, historically speaking) in China, which is why much of their cuisine features seafood. The same thing applies throughout the world: in places like France and Italy, cheese-making has been part of their cultures for thousands of years. And cheese is featured in many Italian and French dishes.
As a Chinese living in Europe, I now enjoy having milk, cheese and butter. Talking about the reason why Chinese dishes do not use diary materials, generally I would say it is just the unique culture feature. You know, every culture has its unique feature. Chinese ancient palaces were built with wood while western ancient palaces were built with stone. Chinese do paintings with water color on paper, while western people do paintings with oil on cloth. Chinese have soup at the end of meals while westerners have soup at start of meals. Chinese have black hair while westerners have brown hair…. The following is a site on comparative introduction of Chinese culture. Wish it helps.
Dairy just isn’t that popular in traditional Chinese or Asian cooking in general. It just didn’t catch on. As a result, many Asians are lactose intolerant simply because they don’t continue drinking milk after childhood. Mongolian cooking does still use dairy a lot, mainly because the yak is their staple food, and they use every bit of the animal – including its milk.
