Fried milk they do it in Liguria, in the Marche it is called fried cream, it is also eaten in Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna, in Piedmont it is part of the classic frying. The recipe seems to have arrived with the Arabs in Sicily but is widespread throughout the peninsula.
On the web, however, it is Chinese fried milk the most wanted. What is it? And above all, does it really exist? My research begins like this – «Do you know ‘fried milk’? Ever eaten? ” – asking friends and acquaintances of Chinese origin, and reading on specialized sites: writing this article was not that easy.
We could open a chapter on the philology of fake news and their diffusion on the net but we limit ourselves to telling what fried milk really is and why (perhaps) it is talked about on the web. Which is why we’re writing this article: following a spike in Google searches that we don’t understand why.
CANTONESE RICE DOES NOT EXIST, WHAT ABOUT FRIED MILK?
See i fortune cookies were born in San Francisco e spring rolls and Cantonese rice do not exist in China, fried milk could be one of these “inventions” born to satisfy Western tastes. It could be a pity that we have never seen it here. Never even heard of Jada Bai, from Milan, daughter of a historic restaurateur and Coordinator of Chinese language courses and cultural events of the Permanent Training School of the Italy China Foundation. “This is the first time I’ve heard of it, you know? I have never eaten it … In my opinion it is the result of a mix of cultures, however, not native to China. Probably it is a Chinese recipe born from the Portuguese or English influences that landed in the ports of Hong Kong or Macao ». On the internet, after a quick search, however, he told me that it is a Spanish recipe … Or could it be a recipe from some ethnic minority in western China where milk was used more? Or even an invention of the diaspora in the United States?
Searching in English for news on the invention of Chinese fried milk, you land right there, a Hong Kong e Macao, a place where western pastry and the use of cow’s milk were cleared and became part of the local culture. Portuguese pasteis de nata have become the popular egg tart, the typical dessert of the two cities, and the leite frito of the Azores… The fried milk we were looking for.
DALIANG’S FRIED MILK
Jada, with a search in Chinese, suggests something else to me, that is a traditional recipe from a specific area of Shunde province, not surprisingly the region bordering Hong Kong, the Guangdong (formerly Caton). There for at least a couple of centuries the rice fields were worked with water buffaloes and their milk, very precious, was used for cooking. In the city of Deliang, milk becomes a course of its own, in the form of soup or stir-fried like a thick custard, with shrimp, pork or Chinese ham and pine nuts: the result is more like scrambled eggs than anything else. that reproduce other typical recipes, made with soy milk.
In the seventies, putting together the sources, a local cook apparently used milk to make a cream with starch, without eggs, he let it cool and then cut into sticks he put it to fry. The result became a stick with hot custard melting inside, crunchy on the outside. From there it most likely spread in the area under the name of Daliang Fried Milk: a “traditionally” Chinese version of the Portuguese frito leite, which became popular thanks to the increased spread of dairy products in the following years.
LITTLE MILK, AND ONLY FOR A FEW YEARS
In China milk as well as milk-based desserts and cheeses have never been widespread and their use arises from the contamination between local traditions with Portuguese and Anglo-Saxon ingredients and customs, which arrived in the East together with traders and settlers in the past centuries. Only after the economic reform of the 1980s were the first dairy farms born and today milk and sweets are widespread, especially loved by Millennials. The milk that is drunk in Bubble Tea and used in their desserts, however, is still mainly condensed milk or powdered milk, cooked in very sweet creams and jellies and in ways the Chinese have adapted milk to their cooking. The Made in Hong Kong recipe of fried milk, of which traces are most easily found, actually includes condensed milk diluted with water and rice starch, no or few eggs, white color and gelatinous consistency. It looks more like panna cotta than custard, it is cooled and then breaded and fried until crispy. Today iFried milk is the new sweet star of Chinese bakeries and pastry shops, which have spread to the Hong Kong region in the rest of Quandong – and along with the rest of Cantonese cuisine, for the world.
ON THE TRACKS OF FRIED MILK IN ITALY
Not much in Italy though, or at least not so much in Chinese restaurants as told by online bloggers … Between Google and social networks you can find everything, and the Chinese fried milk we found in a restaurant in Bologna, in one in Verona and in a caramel version in a place in Carrara…. Only trace in a high-level restaurant, at Bon Wei in Milan, which for years has been carrying out a search for typical recipes from the different regions of China and in collaboration with the Italy China Foundation aims to make known the different culinary traditions of their very rich gastronomy . On the occasion of a thematic menu, chef Guoqing Zhang served the dessert “Soft heart of milk in a crispy crust 炸 牛奶” years ago, here it is. I guess now with Jada we’re going to get it prepared: there is always a first time.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
