Datshi
Bhutan's soft cheese, made from buttermilk and melted into the national dish, ema datshi.
Also: datse, ema datshi cheese
Datshi is the cheese of Bhutan, made in homes and village dairies from cow or yak milk. After butter is churned from the cream, the buttermilk is heated until it curdles, and the curd is drained and shaped into small rounds or balls. Fresh datshi is soft and mild; kept for some days, it becomes tangy and pungent. Its great use is in cooking: ema datshi, chillies stewed with datshi until the cheese melts into a sauce, is Bhutan's national dish, and kewa datshi with potato and shamu datshi with mushrooms are close behind. Datshi is also made in Sikkim and among Bhutanese families in India, and it overlaps with soft churpi.