On the MenuHong 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.
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.