Churpi
The Himalayan cheese of Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling and Bhutan, eaten soft in curries or dried rock-hard and chewed.
Also: chhurpi, छुर्पी, chhurpi cheese
Churpi, or chhurpi, is made in the eastern Himalayas from the buttermilk left after churning butter, usually from yak or chauri (yak and cow cross) milk at altitude and cow milk lower down. The buttermilk is boiled until the curd separates, then drained in cloth. Soft churpi is eaten fresh, cooked into curries, soups and achar, or mixed with chilli. Hard churpi is pressed, cut into small blocks, and dried over smoke and in the open air for weeks until it is as hard as stone; it is held in the mouth and chewed slowly for an hour or more. Hard churpi is now also exported as a dog chew, but its first purpose was to keep herders fed on long treks.