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Mozzarella of the East: Fan Cheese (乳扇)
R ushan (乳扇) is quite different from rubing （乳饼） in
appearance. Shan (扇) in Chinese means `fan`, so rushan is
usually translated `fan cheese`. In Bai it is called nvxseiz, the etymology of which is unclear. Sold in sheets about 30-40 centimetres long and 7-10 centimetres wide, it has a yellowy cream colour, is shiny, and hard to the touch, though pliable. It is made in Eryuan, Dengchuan and many other places including Xizhou. It may be eaten raw, though people usually deep-fry it. The cheese is cut up into small chunks and fried very quickly in hot oil, which causes it to puff up. It becomes light and crispy, and melts in the mouth. Like rubing, it is considered a special dish that is often served to guests and is eaten at festival times.
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Thin strips of cheese become fan-like after drying on this frame for 24 hours.

Rushan is one of the ingredients in the Bai three-course tea, which is a kind of tea ceremony, nowadays accompanied by dancing girls and music. The three-course tea actually dates back to the Tang dynasty, when the Nanzhao and Dali kings used to offer it to their important guests. The first cup is a bitter tea, the second is sweet, and the third has a strong aftertaste. The first bitter cup is made from roasted tea. This is supposed to represent the hardships of life that one must endure before one can attain happier times. It is also called `one hundred struggles tea` or `hardship tea`. The second cup contains pieces of walnut, brown sugar, and some rushan. The sweet flavour reminds the drinker of the good times in life. Honey, ginger, pepper and cinnamon are added to the third cup, which therefore has an interesting tangy flavour which lingers in the mouth. The thought behind this cup is that one should look back over one's actions and consider which have been good and which bad.

Rushan is made by warming fresh cow's milk (never goat's milk) in a wok, and then adding either household vinegar or some sour milk to curdle it. Since the milk is never pasteurised, the natural live bacteria work quickly in curdling the cheese. The milk is stirred with chopsticks and quickly separates into curds and whey. The fresh curds have the consistency and taste of mozzarella, and when cooked, melt in a stringy way in the characteristic fashion of mozzarella. However, the Bai never eat the fresh curds, but always dry them first.

The warm curds are pulled out from the wok with the chopsticks and are manipulated with the fingers for a while before being stretched over a bamboo frame. The frame consists of two parallel 2.5 metre-long bamboo poles fastened together about 10 centimetres apart. Several strips may be spread over the frame, and when full it is placed outside, usually on a covered porch, to allow the cheese to dry. The cheese is left for about twenty-four hours, and then is removed from the frame. The sheets are basically oblong in shape but taper at the ends to a curled up point where they had been wrapped around the bamboo poles. Two sheets are placed together, one on top of the other, in such a way that the ends of the lower sheet curl round the upper one, holding them together. Stacked in pairs, they are then taken to the market to be sold.


Excerpted from: Allen, Bryan. 2002. Make Boluo de yihan: Ji Zhongguo shaoshu minzu de nailao [What Marco Polo missed: The cheese of China’s ethnic minority peoples]. (Liu Xiaofeng, trans.) Ethnic Guide 266. 35-37.