“This side is Delhi, so you’ll only find people. This side is Haryana, so you’ll find buffaloes. A lot of buffaloes,” says Sunil Bhu, a cheesemaker, as he talks to NPR in India.
“India has more than 39 million water buffaloes. They’re just like the ones in Italy whose milk is used to make the Italian delicacy mozzarella di bufala. So the Indians thought: Well, if the Italians can make mozzarella, why can’t we?” So welcome to a new world where your mozzarella may came from India and your samosas from New York!
Gone are the days when Indian immigrants would carry back canned Kraft cheese for hankering family members or purchase it in the black market in Delhi or Bombay to give as gifts. Entire generations grew up on Amul cheese and its sibling, utterly butterly delicious Amul butter. Now as the new economy takes off and people become more savvy about the nuances of cheese and other gourmet delicacies, India’s long suffering buffalos are beginning to look quite hip and cool. They give you mozzarella for pizza, which seems to be becoming a national food in urban India.
Back to the NPR report where Puneet Gupta, a cheese maker calls milk ‘white gold’. Some Italians are also jumping on to the Indian cheese wagon:
