not cheese

2 of my students were out of town for a few weeks, acting as tour guides of some sort for visitors from Mongolia. They were back in class on Friday, and I asked them to tell the class a little about their experience, the language barrier, and cultural differences. Not surprisingly, they focused on food. The Mongolians introduced new dishes to their hosts, and vice versa. My students found some of the new dishes strange, and they thought it was funny that their guests felt the same way about Chinese food.

"The Mongolians, they eat things that I am not used to. Like... cheese..."

"Cheese? They have cheese?" I asked, perhaps a little too excitedly. Cheese and bread are main staples of my diet at home, and what I've been able to find here has been pretty sub-par. Like, Velveeta and Wonder Bread.

"Yes. They gave us some when they left. I can give it to you if you would like."

I insisted that they didn't, but one of my students came to our next class, cheese in hand. He proudly presented it to me, bragging about how much his friends had enjoyed their cheese, and he hoped I liked it, too. I thanked him profusely and smiled as he took his seat. You have no idea how excited I was. As soon as I came home I took out my prize. Oh crap. I thought. This is so not cheese. It was little, and hard, and coated in sesame seeds.

I tried them anyway. Yeah, definitely not cheese, and not good, either. They were sweet, and reminded me of something, but what? And then it dawned on me. It's the cream center of these, but... hard, and totally gross. I'm thinking maybe if I can find some caramel, I can melt the "cheese" into it...? For now, they're sitting in my fridge.

such a let down.