Late 19th-century British expatriates faced the following problems when they were trying to carry on their foodways, in which milk played an essential role, to Hong Kong:
1. The lack of a reliable supply of sterilized milk
2. The lack of standardization of milk
3. The local population’s inability to comprehend the benefits of milk because of their racial inferiority
(It's quite amusing to see how frustrated the contributor was back then simply over the issue of milk to which he had to insult not only the locals but the Scottish too.)
Transcription:
Transcription:
“MILK DIET IN THE FAR EAST.
[BY A. CONTRIBUTOR.]
To foreigners in China no more anxious dietary question can be presented than that of the milk supply. The Southern Chinese do not use milk; it is said they do not like it, that they have no appetite for it, that it causes various illnesses, and so on. They are one of the few races of people who have neglected the cultivation of milk and the manufacture of cheese and butter. It is to be feared that, with all their belief in their superior civilization, the brains of the race were not sufficient to seize hold of this ever-present source of food, and that in their conceit they take refuge in the usual statement 'that it is not good for you.' With this fact staring one in the face, it becomes a question how is the foreigner to supply himself with milk. There can be had goats' milk, in a few cases, buffalo milk, and in still fewer cows' milk, and these latter only in favoured places. In some places, as in Hongkong, you have milk 'from a Chinaman' or from dairy-farms, some preferring one, some the other. What determines the choice of milk is in some cases the price, but in most cases the amount of cream believed to be present. The price of milk in Hongkong is about the same whether 'from a Chinaman' or the Dairy-farms; the Chinaman's, however, in time, bulk for bulk, comes somehow or other to be the dearer. As regards the quality of milk—when it is estimated merely by the amount of cream, every one considers him or herself a judge of that; and the wholesomeness of the milk and its goodness is supposed to be indicated thereby. If you want cream, use buffalo milk; if you want it still better, just mix the least quantity of flour with it; or various other tricks may be resorted to which we feel justified in keeping secret. If you want cream with a 'crust' on it, get your milk from Canton, the cream hunters will be thoroughly pleased with that.
The milk in Hongkong from the dairy farms all contains too much cream—one specimen as much as 7 per cent, above the normal quantity of what cows’ milk should yield. How this comes about we must leave to the consciences of the farmers concerned; but it may be explained by the addition of buffalo milk 'to suit the English taste,' or by the richness of the keep afforded the cows. What does all this de-sire for cream mean, and what is it likely to lead to, especially in tropical climates? Cream is merely the fat, and the lighter part of the fat, which when the milk cools down rises to the top. Of further nutrition it yields but only an infinitesimal quantity. It is the milk itself, not the cream, which contains the real nourishment; but the removal of the cream leaves nothing but 'skimmed milk,' and in the belief of the 'modern' matron that is only fit for pigs. That is to say the thing that is prized is the fat globules, whilst the essence of the fluid is despised- the non-sustaining part is cherished, whereas the true nutriment is thrown away. Did your grand-mother, oh learned matron but a few years rescued from boarding school, supply such milk to her family; do any but towns-people now drink milk with the cream on it; does any milk-drinking people, as the Scotch, Swedes, Danes and the Russians drink unskimmed milk? Let us answer the question for you—No! It is only the 'modern' town-bred-in-ideas folk who drink what they believe to be unskimmed milk, who ascribe no good to any part of the milk except the cream, who take this blubber of fat to their hearts and who despise all dairies that cannot supply milk with a crust, or milk with 17 per cent instead of the normal ten. To dwellers in the tropics the question is doubly interesting. Congestion of the liver, disorders of digestion, diarrhea and dysentery are almost daily ailments with some of the members of our households. Children get diarrhea, adults have congested livers; the climate is blamed, catching chill is set down as the cause, and so on. We would advise a careful investigation of the diet, for nothing is so calculated to upset the digestion as rich food. What cham-pagne or excess of beer does to the adult, cream will do to the child. The ease with which the diseases mentioned are set up in tropical countries surely implies that rich food has an undue effect in these latitudes compared with the most temperate Euro-pean climates. The diet suited for Sweden will be too stimulating in the tropics, but the belief seems to be that the more tropical the climate the richer the food required, and the milk with 17 per cent of cream is upheld as of the typical caliber. It must be to the medical profession we must look for advice, and much as one of our local men has done to advance the distribution of wholesome cow's milk, we would advise him to go further and imitate the advice being given by the highest London medical authorities, especially to the sick, to drink skimmed milk. We are aware that a few of the leading physicians allow their children to drink skimmed milk only;—of course they supply the or-dinary milk with the cream on to the servants, as 'Sarah' knows much better than they do what is good for her. There-fore, unless the medical men prescribe it, there is but little chance of our matrons taking to it; and we do not envy the Doctor who tries to uphold the advantages of skimmed milk to Mr, So-and-So in this colony, over the thickly-coated milk with which we are familiar, Further, if the Dairy Farm is to do its duty, we would suggest that it supply skimmed milk to those who want it; that they ought to buy a first-rate separator. The outlay is no doubt considerable but 'no dairy farm can be considered complete with out it;’ and as the Directors of our 'Dairy Farm' in Hongkong, rather pose philanthropists, let us urge them to philanthropise a little more and give us the milk to drink freed from superfluous fat, milk of the nature drunk by the fathers and mothers of the Scotch in this Colony, and not the milk suited to the town taste, of people brought up amongst the smoky chimneys and the unnatural surroundings of town dwellers who know not cows' from goats' milk, nor buffalo's from milk of flour. By so doing the Dairy Farm will be doing a real service, will do much to keep our children free from diarrhea and big livers, and keep them well until they are sent home to drink milk, not loaded with buffalo fat, —sent to where the slaying hand has not been withheld to remove from the surface the dangerous element of the milk which was so liberally forced upon them in Hongkong. You carefully skim the fat from soup, why not from milk; tested chemically and microscopically they are the same substances you remove in either case; but you throw the fat of the soup away, whilst you cherish the fat of milk. It is written—a land over-flowing with ‘milk and honey,’ not cream and honey. One remembers drinks of milk at farm-houses at home—smacks one's lips and says ‘You call get nothing like it here,’ We say ‘No, you cannot, you do not get the skimmed milk to drink you got at the farm house.’ ‘Nonsense, you say; it is not skimmed milk one gets at home, but milk just as it comes from the cow.’ ‘Yes, that is your belief, persistent arguer, but we know something of home milk and we know that you cannot draw milk from a plate without breaking the cream; and every English, Scotch, or Irish farmer’s wife skims the cream off first, fills the jug with skimmed milk, and may, just ‘to suit the town bred-taste,’ put a dash of cream on the top. Much more could we descant on milk in general, and upon milk as it is supplied in this Colony, such as the fad of milk from one cow and such like. But we shall reserve such until we see what either the Doctors or the Dairy Farm will do to supply us with milk free from the liver congesting and diarrhea-yielding substance —cream—so much overprized by Hongkong matrons. The day may not be far distant when, even in tropical Hongkong, we may be supplied with the milk, as we used to have it to our porridge in Scotland or to our relish in Devonshire.”