By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Unless you read the label, nothing about this lovely new semisoft cheese suggests that it comes from Tibet. Or that it is made from yak milk. The cheese resembles Gruy่re, though a little less nutty and a bit muskier. Nomadic groups milk their yaks, which feed only on the natural grasses of the high plateau, and take the milk to cheesemaking factories, where it is made into 13-pound wheels, cured with red salt, aged six to nine months and sent to the United States. The project is sponsored by the Trace Foundation, a New York nonprofit organization that works to strengthen the culture and economy of rural Tibetan communities. All profits go to health and education programs. Yak cheese can be nibbled plain, layered in a sandwich or baked in a casserole or in a quiche. It is about $13 a pound at Whole Foods supermarkets, Ideal Cheese, Citarella and the Garden of Eden, at 162 West 23rd Street.
