Himalayan Hard Cheese · Chewed Like Gum

Chhurpi

Photo: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The hardest version of this cheese — often called the world's hardest — isn't really bitten so much as sucked: a single cube softens slowly in the mouth and can last an hour or more.

Chhurpi is a yak- or cattle-milk cheese made in two forms: a soft, ricotta-like curd used in soups and momo fillings, and a rock-hard aged block that's pressed, smoked and cut into cubes meant to be sucked and chewed rather than bitten through. Khumbu households and trailside shops sell both versions, with the hard cubes a favorite trekking-trail snack.

Why it's made this way: In high mountain villages where fresh food is scarce for much of the year, chhurpi became one of the Sherpa region's key sources of protein, and the hard version keeps for months without refrigeration.