World News for Students of English

29-08-2022 15:00

South Koreans traditionally eat most meals with a generous dollop of the fiery local side dish kimchi, but they are also growing taste for another fermented food – cheese.

While Japan is by far the biggest consumer of cheese in Asia, South Korea is one of the fastest growing markets. The USA exported fifty-three per cent of cheese to South Korea in 2015’s first nine months. New Zealand exported 13%, and the rest came from Germany, France and others.

Cheese demand has been increased, thanks to exposure to Western dishes such as pizza, but South Koreans also incorporate cheese into local dishes like noodle soup and kimchi stir-fried rice. A possible explanation is that cheese helps to take away the heat from spicy dishes.

Cheese consumption is on the rise in the Asian country, but 2.4 kilograms per person per year is still nothing compared to France where people consume ten more times the cheese.

Difficult words: dollop (a large amount), fiery (spicy), kimchi (cabbage that has been stored with vinegar), fermented (to last longer after it is changed by bacteria, yeast, or other microorganisms), exposure to (experience with).

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