h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Er, you might, however, keep in mind that in the US, far more people are lactose intolerant than in Europe.

According to the Physicians' Committe for Responsible Medicine, 'Approximately 70 percent of African Americans, 90 percent of Asian Americans, 53 percent of Mexican Americans, and 74 percent of Native Americans were lactose intolerant.'

According to this same source, if you can tolerate cow's milk as an adult, you're a mutant:

'In 1988, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported, "It rapidly became apparent that this pattern was the genetic norm, and that lactase activity was sustained only in a majority of adults whose origins were in Northern European or some Mediterranean populations. In other words, Caucasians tolerate milk sugar only because of an inherited genetic mutation.'

There's a reason why German/Scandinavian Wisconsin is the dairy capital of the US.

And why my mom put evaporated milk in her coffee.

That's a very good point Dmitri, thanks.

Overall there are 40,000,000 Lactose intolerant Americans.

Yeah, in some Philadelphia supermarkets, it's hard to find milk, but easy to find Lactaid.

And those of us who are lactose sensitive have to be selective about our dairy intake - avoid ice cream, for example, and eat only certain cheeses, and those in moderation...

Which might be one reason for all the 'cheese food'.

There may also be degrees of lactose intolerance. My grandmother and my father were somewhat intolerant, but small amounts of milk seemed to do no harm. I try not to overdo it: a little bit of milk in my coffee and in my cereal is fine, but if I have too much coffee that means putting milk in it, so there might be problems. I eat half a cup of yogurt at night. I think yogurt is supposed to be tolerated by the lactose-intolerant.

I've never noticed any problems with cheese.

Yeah, that's it, Paul: I'm the same way. If I visit relatives who use half-and-half, after about two days, I need to start drinking black coffee.

Yoghurt's got good stuff in it - even better, try to get sheep's milk yoghurt, because I'll bet you have Greeks around.

Apparently the harder the cheese the less lactose it contains..So says the Cheese Snob.
http://askthecheesesnob.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/does-lactose-intolerance-no-cheese.html

Yes, Dmitri, we *definitely* have Greeks around in my area. I'm rather fond of feta cheese. But most of the cheeses I eat are fairly hard -- cheddar, Swiss, etc.

Having Greeks around definitely improves the grocery selection.

Thanks for that article on cheeses.

Apropos of very little, I am currently enjoying a bag of Cheetos, a beloved snack of mine and abnormally difficult to find in this country. For any Brits unfamiliar, they are almost an exact cross between Wotsits and NikNaks (particularly the 'original' cheesy NikNak which now no longer existed, subsumed by the poor imitator of the 'Cream Cheese' flavour).

Does anyone know why I have to buy them at ridiculous cost from American importers rather than nip down to Tescbury's for a six pack?

B

Er, aren't Cheetos those cheese-flavoured pieces of styrofoam? Why would anyone want to eat them?

I do read that they are allegedly gluten-free. Ah, me. Why don't they make *good* food gluten-free?

There are 2 *basic* forms of Cheetos--there's the regular, shriveled-up looking ones, that are crunchier, and puffs, which are like styrofoam (and that Notepad calls "worm chips" ). Most of the other different forms are variations on the puff form.

Ah! And, in case you were wondering, Frito-Lay asserts that most varieties are, indeed, gluten-free.

So are Fritos, hurrah. Now, Fritos are good...

Gluten-free is fine. Taste-free is not.

Cheddar is prominewt for two reasons:

1. It is made in abundance in Wisconsin, Vermont, and probably some other states with dairy herds.

It aint cheddar unless its made Country of origin in England
Region of somerset and the Town of Cheddar.

its a cheeses of cheddar style

Is US cheese quality and choice, really that much worse than in the UK?:

Sure you go online and look quickly at the supermarkets cheese counters/shelves, and it initially looks like a huge choice, hundreds and hundreds of items.
But, then on closer inspection, and even, on closer tasting of the products, most of them don't even ressemble the cheese they're meant to be... Most cheddars are rubbery pale imitation of the texture and taste of proper cheddar, most of the brie is under ripe, and just utterly wrong, most of the stuff sold as mozarella is no such thing and would probably be illegal to be sold under that name in its home country... etc., etc., etc.,
True, there are useually a few good examples of edible cheeses within various catogries, but the vast majority of what looks like a huge choice, isn't a choice at all...

My bestistist place for cheeses, near me, actually only ever sells a maxamum of three cheeses, an Edam, a Polish smoked cheese (that I can't pronounce let alone spell), and a Polish gudar (which I probably can't spell either), as all three are perfectly decent and also cheap that does for most of my cheese needs, cept what I have to make do with from the supermarkets (Mixing parmazan with c**p mozarella plus half-decent cheddar produces soemthing not entirely unlike actual* mozarella)

The cheese expert hath spoken.

And he never even mentioned bacon.

Mmm... melted cheese and bacon.

It is not just an accident of coincidence that god
created cheese to have a melting point so closely
aligned to the micro-wave cooking time of bacon.

Approx 20 seconds to Paradise! Not all ovens are
created equal. Cooking times may vary.

~jwf~

Well, its like most things the supermarkets do here... yes they sell sausages, but yes the vast majority of sausages they sell are revolting and inedible... But I guess someone must buy them same for cheeses or well anything I guess they sell Can't beat a nice piece of cheese, or two, cept maybe with another nice piece of cheese or two, or perhaps a nice sausage or two, or It still baffles me how some of the supermarket stuff manages to be quite so inedible, and some of the brand name stuff too... I foolishly purchased some frozen burgers, ages back, and they were revolting... and they were a brand name one... yet, the burgers I made with just the pretty cheap but not cheapest, frozen mince, own brand, from the supermarekt, was edible and tasty Mind, I've never tried their fresh burgers so dunno if they're edible or not
hmmm... yet some of the own brand soups are quite edible well, to me anyhow daminit I've just eaten dinner, and now I'm going to have to raid the cheese... I mean raid the fridge, for* cheese

"It is not just an accident of coincidence that god
created cheese to have a melting point so closely
aligned to the micro-wave cooking time of bacon" [jwf]

It's a good thing you mentioned god here, and not in a certain other thread.

I am from Austria, where as we heard they eat a lot and also a lot of cheese.

I personally don't do well with mould cheese because of my histamine intolerance, the younger the cheese the better for me, although I cope well with 'normal' cheeses without mould.
Though I love baguette with brie and apricot jam.

As a cild I always loved to eat the holes of Emmental cheese and we have a variety of strong mountain cheeses. We also get a lot of Italian stuff, because it's not far away.

Another cheese I always liked as a child is 'Quargel': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olomouck%C3%A9_syre%C4%8Dky
It's slightly transucent and rubbery. And it stinks.

My dad always liked Steirerkas, which is from Austria. It's either like real cheese or all crumbly and has different spices in it, mostly caraway.
http://www.ama-marketing.at/uploads/RTEmagicC_Sauermilchk.jpg.jpg
As a child I never liked it but now I think it's not bad, but we can hardly get it here as I live in the wrong province to get it.

There's also a lot of hard and soft goat and sheep cheeses.


When the farmers had their cattle up in the mountains in summer they made lots of cheese from the milk and brought it back to the valleys in autumn. There's quite a few different regional specialities in the mountains.