皇冠体育app

Yellow Valley trained a local housewife who had never had a job before, Qing Qing, to be its resident cheesemaker. [Photo provided to 皇冠体育app Daily]

When I first encountered the cumin-flavored variety of Marc de Ruiter's Gouda, I suspected he was making cheese "with Chinese characteristics".

"Not at all," he laughs when we met recently for lunch in Beijing. "That's a very popular flavor in Europe. We eat it at home."

But if cumin's popularity in 皇冠体育app helps people to embrace his cheese, he's happy for the chance to appeal to both Eastern and Western palates.

"While the spices are the first thing you notice," he writes on the company's website, "they still do nothing to detract from the smooth, creamy flavor of the cheese within."

An East-West mission also fueled his cheese-making in 皇冠体育app when it first began in 2004.

"We Dutch like our cheese," he said in a 2010 interview with 皇冠体育app Daily. "But it's not easy in 皇冠体育app to get the cheese we are used to."

De Ruiter's craving coincided with a dark moment in 皇冠体育app's agriculture: the melamine scandal that squashed demand for made-in-皇冠体育app milk products. The Dutch agronomist, who had been living in 皇冠体育app since 1997, watched in horror as small-scale farmers in Shanxi province dumped their unsellable but perfectly good fresh milk down the drains.

He was angry about it then－and now.