I went into Shavuos with a wary mind this year for certain trends in the cheesecake industry have been troubling. First off homemade cheesecake is becoming a rare commodity not to be taken lightly, like homemade challah in cities with kosher bakeries, homemade cheesecake is rare. Then when it is homemade the trend has been to discount the importance of the crust, not to be taken lightly my friends, for crust is just as important as the actual filling and topping.
Have you ever had pie with poor crust quality? You might as well just eat the apple, for the filling is a complete waste without the proper crustage- it is like hot dogs without the proper condiments- plain old crappy. So you might say I was a bit dismayed, knowing I would be spending Shavuos in Washington Heights which has direct access to a kosher bakery (which if I recall correctly has damned good cheesecake) and I basically worried the whole week about whether I would in fact enjoy shavuos through good cheesecake, or if I would have to settle for the traditional anyone can make this ziti and blintzes.
I was not let down, I did not have to go another shavuos eating generic freezer burned frozen crustless cheesecake. I did not have to peel off wax paper dividers in order to eat a block of sweetened cream cheese- which one can hardly even call cake- what is cake after all, if it is just merely cheese? Should this not be called cheese, sweet cheese if you will? A thin layer of crust that resembles soggy matzo can hardly turn a piece of sweetened cheese into cake. I am not a cake philosophizer- but I would think that there should be some universal standard as to what the minimum crust thickness should be in order to gain stature as cake.
Then as I was sitting on a friend or friends white leather couch, somebody whispered into my ear that there was a surprise dish that I may get excited about. I was going back and forth between two different kinds of quiches and a mighty fine spinach and pine nut salad to pay heed to her warning. I continued stabbing pieces of spinach and trying to balance the rains and pine nuts precariously on my fork when I noticed a fresh silvery aluminum tray placed on the buffet table.
I quickly loaded all the contents of my plate into my gullet and made my way to the buffet table, knocking over small children and old ladies in the process. At last I could see the glory that lay before my eyes, but would its crust contentHorarios del online poker Americana (M?quinas de Azar) y Bar Slot de las 11 de la manana a las 5 de la madrugada. that was hidden beneath layers of cherries and cheese meet the standards set forth by my cheesecake rating system. With super strength, I was finally able to burst through the crust which reminded me of that scene from Armageddon when they start drilling in the meteor- I was already impressed, for a plastic knife was not able to reach the depths of the cake and precautionary measures were made through the usage of a steak knife- my kind of cake already.
The crust did not fail and in fact some people were even scraping off cake in order to eat plain crust- but let us not devalue the cake park itself. The cheese was of great richness and the cherries added a good sweet and red slathering of random slime. It was good and when the cook who look to be pleased asked me how it was- my only response that truly conveyed my feelings was to answer “orgasmic”.
22 responses so far ↓
1 Lion of Zion // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:17 am
“First off homemade cheesecake is becoming a rare commodity not to be taken lightly”
it wasn’t homemade, but moshava had really good cheesecake (and an unbelievable ice storm). you should have come. (your name actually came up in a conversation with a one-time biking buddy of yours, so you would have known people there after all.)
now what is really becoming rare is cake/pastries with real strawberries (thanks to the strawberry ban).
2 heshman // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:29 am
Which one time biking buddy?
Ari- I have noticed people becoming quite lax in the whole strawberry affair, leafy veggies remain washed, but strawberries pretty much everywhere have been reduced to the general rinse- seems like the veggie wash is not really used by much of the people I eat at.
3 Chris_B // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:38 am
Count your blessings heshman, everywhere you go in Tokyo they promise “NY cheesecake” but its always a filthy lie! If you are a pie man, I cant say much positive for Tokyo either.
Forget baking your own these days, we’ve got a butter shortage. A true crisis for anyone who likes to bake.
4 heshman // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:46 am
Dude you know you can make your own butter. Just get a whole of some non pasteurized milk, then email me- if they have that sort of thing. For some reason I feel like they don’t have cows in Asia- am I just American isolated moron?
5 Chris_B // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:10 am
There are cows in Japan but I have no idea how I’d get non pasteurized milk.
The Butter Crisis is the result of a nearly perfect storm of market failure. Japanese dairy farmers killed off a bunch of their cows in 2006 since milk prices went down. Since then most of their produce goes to regular milk, mostly to the drinks companies that make canned coffee or other industrial uses (bread, etc) or to make cheese. Its not worth it to them to allocate milk for butter since there is little market for the byproduct which can only be used to make powdered milk.
Japan used to get some from Australia, but they’ve had a few years of draught so not much extra to sell. The Chinese went and bought large dairy futures contracts from them so nothing left for Japan!
Now if you can even find it in the stores, its one stick per customer and it sells out fast! Of course if the dairy companies imported butter from the US it would make too much sense…
6 Anonymous // Jun 11, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Mmmm…cheesecake.
I felt my shavuot was lacking this year. Now I think I know why - No cheesecake! Why was it not served any place I went this year? I live in the Midwest, so it can’t be blamed on a butter shortage.
I want to know how the baker responded when Hesh told her (him?) that the cake was orgasmic.
7 Batya // Jun 11, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Last year all the cheesecakes seemed to have been hyped up with gelitin. It was like eating tasteless white jello.
This year my husband bought a better one.
8 Mikeinmidwood // Jun 11, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I didnt see any cheesecakes this yea,r but I am not a big fan of it.
9 jennie // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hesh, you are such a food appreciator and critic — you really should learn to cook. There is nothing as good as what you make yourself to your exact taste. I have a cherry pie waiting for me at home. I made every bit from scratch including picking the cherries at a farm half an hour away. I know it will be good because it is made exactly the way I like it! And if it isn’t good (but it will be) I can try again next time.
10 Hi! // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Ah, the amount of cheesecake i had this year was insane. We had caramel cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, lemon cheesecake, cheese (regular) cheesecake, cherry cheesecake, peanut butter cheesecake and at least 2 more chocolate and regular ones!!! Then we had cheese filled flowerettes, cheese canolees, fudge cupcakes, lemon cookies, chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate and peanute butter mousse, vanilla and chocolate rugalach, and i cant remember what else!!
I’m so full just thinking about it all. This was all part of the “kiddush” we would have before every meal. (of a party of 12 altogether)
Oh, and all home made btw. We have leftovers. Anyone!?
11 Anita // Jun 11, 2008 at 6:47 pm
OMG!! My sister makes homemade cheesecake. Its amazing. With Oreo crust !!
mmmmm
Over shavous we have homemade pizza, homemade fettuccini alfredo… mm…
none of that settling “for the traditional anyone can make this ziti and blintzes.”
12 SUPERFRUM // Jun 11, 2008 at 7:15 pm
My favorite cheescake recipe is 1 cont. 2 lb. plain yogurt, 1 cup milk, 4 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 lemon rind, 1 cup sugar. What brocho is it?
13 Sara K // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I had a great mango cheesecake at Ezzie’s house.
14 s(b.) // Jun 11, 2008 at 9:29 pm
if there’s crust, mizonos. if not, shehakol.
do I win the bee?
15 heshman // Jun 11, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Hey I almost won the brachos bee in third grade
16 Anonymous // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:35 pm
“In order to make something from scratch you have to first create the universe.”
17 heshman // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:00 am
Anon is that a kabalistic way of making cheesecake?
18 Shevers // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:18 am
I had MINT cheesecake this year, and regular cheesecake with strawberries.
Quality Chocolate Mousse gives cheesecake a run for its money…
19 Not From Burqalyn // Jun 12, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Of all the calorie-drenched delicious dairy fods I ate this year, far and away the best item was a Costco Cheesecake. I made a pretty darned good cheesecake myself- 2 dairy layers (one cream cheese based, then a sour-cream based topping, none of that lemon rind remniscent of Mr. Clean, no goopy strawberry/cherry/insert syrupy fruit mixed with jello/melted jelly- but I digress. Point being- the $12.99 huge Costco cheesecakewas incredible!
20 Not From Burqalyn // Jun 12, 2008 at 7:25 pm
PS Moshava was booked to capacity.
21 Anonymous // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:13 pm
HESH:
“Which one time biking buddy?”
allon krausz
22 Lion of Zion // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Not From Burqalyn:
i like your tag.
“the $12.99 huge Costco cheesecakewas incredible!”
i bought my mother-in-law a huge costco (real) strawberry cheesecake last year. i don’t really eat cheasecake, but it was good
“Moshava was booked to capacity”
it’s been that way for a few years. 2 years ago i got in only with protektziya, and we slept in the infirmary. wasn’t that a crazy storm this year?
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