Cheesecake, the results are in...

Thought I would give a quick update about the dinner on Saturday evening (more importantly the cheesecake) and weekend events here. We had a delicious dinner at our friends. It never fails that she pulls out all the stops and it is a multi-course meal. It is even more impressive to note that this was accomplished yet again in spite of the broken arm she is dealing with. So this only adds to the pressure of the cheesecake being at least edible.

I had made sure to ask James to give a disclaimer about the cheesecake upon our arrival at their home. He briefly explained the process of making it and being unsure if it is even close to what cheesecake should resemble. So after the incredible meal we take the cheesecake and strawberries out to serve. James finds the need to record the events on his iphone as I attempt to serve the dessert (remember this is a normal pie type pan, no springform pan to aid in easy serving).

Everyone has their piece of cheesecake and I plead with James to try it first so that if it is awful we can spare the others from eating it. He takes a bite and claims that it is great. His friends follow and report that they really like it.  So with less anxiety I take a bite...to all my fellow cheesecake loving friends, this is NOT what cheesecake is suppose to taste like. In addition to the taste being different, the texture is way off. The part of cheesecake that is normally smooth, dense, and savory is a light and cottage type texture (maybe because the ingredient is not really cream cheese?). If you have never had cheesecake maybe you really can like it. However, to know what the real stuff tastes like it is suffice to say, this is not it. The best parts to me were the crust (made of biscuit type cookies) and the strawberries.

There was about a 1/3 of it left after everyone had a piece (of which they actually ate, no small pets to sneak it off to). At the conclusion of the evening, our friends report that they will finish it and get the pan back to us. We saw them the next day because we went to a outdoor city market (like a flea market) in the village near their home. They returned the clean pan to us and I am not convinced that they just didn't toss the rest out after we had left.

The lesson learned(in my point of view) is that we find real cream cheese before giving this a try again OR just buy some of the fabulous desserts available at any given bakery.