HONG KONG’S NEWEST OBSESSION ISN’T VIRAL PASTRIES, IT’S BLAND AND BORING COTTAGE CHEESE

Tubs of protein-packed creamy cottage cheese have been flying off shelves. When did this unfashionable 'diet food' become so coveted?

As a child of the 90s, I distinctly remember cottage cheese being the frumpiest of foods, peddled as a miracle ingredient for those on restrictive Weight Watchers-style diets.

High in protein and low in salt and fat, it was often suggested as an accompaniment to that other ghastly anti-gourmet product: rice cakes.

Not the deliciously savoury, soy-glazed roasted rice crackers you might buy in a Japanese snack aisle, though - we are talking those squeaky, puffy discs of what could otherwise pass as styrofoam.

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Yet, in 2025, I found myself a convert to cottage cheese. After decades of eschewing these lumpy curds, I was influenced to go buy a pot by a friend who swore by it - it is worth noting that this friend enjoys actual salt and flavour - after she texted me her latest recipe: "New cottage cheese creation - balsamic, salt, halved cherry tomatoes, anchovy pieces. Am calling it Pleb Burrata."

She was onto something. Like the soft and creamy Italian cheese, cottage cheese is a gentle base for an array of flavours - I have recently taken to mixing in a bit of fermented, salted green chilli and slathering the mix on hot sourdough, before topping it with tangy cherry tomatoes and a bit of cheeky bacon.

It also goes exceptionally well with mustardy natto - the slimy superfood that is also incredibly high in protein and amino acids. It works well in sweet preparations, too, much like ricotta. The possibilities are endless.

Cottage cheese is made by adding an acid to milk to cause a separation of the milk solids from the whey; the curds are gently cut and drained again of whey, rinsed and salted. The result is a light, fresh-tasting cheese with a hint of tang - good cottage cheese should not be too squeaky or rubbery.

It is thought that European immigrants to America brought the technique for cottage cheese making over during the 19th century, and the name is a reference to the homes of the farmers who would make cheese from excess milk available to them.

Unlike its cousins ricotta and burrata, however, cottage cheese just never made it big. Until now.

In 2024, culinary website Tasting Table declared that "cottage cheese is having a renaissance moment", while a viral recipe for cottage cheese "flatbread" - which contained only cottage cheese and eggs - was circulating all around social media.

A full year later, the rise of cottage cheese has not slowed - in March, Australian media reported that TikTok was driving an "insatiable appetite" for the product and has "left dietitians grinning and supermarkets scrambling to restock". Bulla Dairy Foods, one of Australia's largest cottage cheese manufacturers, said it had scaled up production in response.

Now the curd nerds have fully revealed themselves in Hong Kong, because it took several weeks of patient stalking around several branches of Marks & Spencer supermarkets to procure a precious pot.

Considered the gold standard by the trilling masses of the Hong Kong Moms Facebook group, the brand's cottage cheese had been consistently out of stock, with members taking to social media to call for help, and to swap recipes for home-made versions.

And so, lo and behold, humble cottage cheese has come full circle.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2025-05-15T00:04:09Z