On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:53:11 +0100, Doug Weller wrote:

> On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:14:56 -0700, in rec.food.cooking, Dan Abel wrote:
>
>>In article >,
>> dsi1 > wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I had a had a soybean custard in a Chinese restaurant that was most
>>> remarkable. It tasted like the freshest, thickest, whitest, and sweetest
>>> cream in existence. It was as if you got fresh sweetened cream to gently
>>> curdle and then you strained it and molded it into a gentle dome onto a
>>> plate with a drizzle of raspberry and a small ball of intensely flavored
>>> mango sherbet. The amazing thing is that there is no milk in this
>>> dessert at all. At least that's what the cook said. That guy is holding
>>> out on me! I've tried to make this using soymilk and agar agar but it
>>> comes out like soybean Jello. Bleech! I'd kill to find that recipe!
>>
>>All I can say is "yeah". I went to a Chinese restaurant and they gave
>>us a complimentary dessert. I could have sworn it was a milk product.
>>No. The Chinese aren't dairy people.
>
> Weren't dairy people. They buy a lot of European milk products now.
>
> Doug

but the fact remains that many, if not most, asian adults are
lactose-intolerant:

Lactose intolerance is the inability to metabolize lactose, a sugar found
in milk and other dairy products, because the required enzyme lactase is
absent in the intestinal system or its availability is lowered. It is
estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase
activity during adulthood. The frequency of decreased lactase activity
ranges from as little as 5% in northern Europe, up to 71% for Southern
Europe, to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance#Lactose_intolerance_by_group>

your pal,
blake