Butter Lost to Lard in China

Cheese lost to tofu in China.

Later, I started wondering: what about butter? Did butter also lose to something in China? After thinking for a while, I realized that butter lost to lard in China...

To be honest, it's only in recent years that I've really started using butter in the kitchen. Before, there was no butter at home at all. For stir-frying, we used rapeseed oil, and for stewing meat, we used lard. What did butter look like? What did it taste like? I only got to know it in Western restaurants and bakeries.

Later, when I started learning to bake bread at home, I bought my first block of butter. I took it out of the fridge, hard as a rock, cut off a small piece, and put it in a frying pan. Watching it slowly melt, the whole kitchen filled with a milky aroma. At the time, I thought it was pretty magical that oil could smell like that.

But after making that bread, I put the butter back in the fridge. The next time I took it out, I couldn't even remember when that was.

I'll use a small piece when frying steak, spread a little on toast, and add some when making cake. But for stir-frying greens, shredded pork, or frying eggs, I never think of using butter. In those situations, without even thinking, I reach for the bottle of rapeseed oil or olive oil nearby.