“Greek” Yogurt FTW

I love Greek yogurt. The “umami” or mouth-feel is luxurious. Unfortunately, Greek yogurt isn’t available in this part of China. However, I discovered that you can easily transform the local yogurt into Greek style yogurt.

Yogurt is widely available here, but it's always sweetened, and usually flavored. I used a "natural" yogurt.

Yogurt is widely available here, but it’s always sweetened, and usually flavored. I used a “natural” yogurt.

Here's my setup: a large bowl, a colander, a piece of cheesecloth, and a dinner plate. Couldn't be simpler.

Here’s my setup: a large bowl, a colander, a piece of cheesecloth, and a dinner plate. Couldn’t be simpler.

Put the yogurt right onto the cheesecloth.

Put the yogurt right onto the cheesecloth.

Put the dinner plate on top to keep the cheesecloth in place, and to seal the works off a bit

Put the dinner plate on top. This kept the cheesecloth in place, and sealed off the works off a bit.

Then I put the works into the fridge, and waited for eight hours.

After eight hours, much water had drained off the yogurt.

After eight hours, much water had drained off the yogurt.

It looks like about 1/3 of the original volume had drained away in yogurt juice.

It looks like about 1/3 of the original volume had drained away as “yogurt juice.”

What was left was creamy and thick.

What was left was creamy and thick.

See how thick it is? Almost like soft cream cheese.

See how thick it is? Almost like soft cream cheese.

The yogurt came right off the cheesecloth.

The yogurt came right off the cheesecloth.

Re-containering the Greekstyle yogurt. Can't wait for breakfast!

Re-containering the Greek-style yogurt. Can’t wait for breakfast!

I like living in China, and I like Chinese food. However, sometimes I crave some American food. A lot of things are not available in the city where I live, but in this case, a little creativity really paid off.