Confessions of a foodie
#7: Japanese cheesecake
Can you go back in time and remember a certain taste? A smell? A touch? I can but only when I have memories, pleasant or traumatic, that go along with them. I have bittersweet memories attached to the taste of the Japanese cheesecake. Without giving away any details, I will just say that a very special person in my life introduced me to this dessert. Despite having tried the store-bought Japanese cheesecake, we made a plan to hunt down the best shop for this dessert in New York’s K-Town. I still remember the gluttony with which I devoured a slice of it on my way home. The combination of milk, egg and vanilla took over my senses and ordered me to get into the bag and start eating a slice in the middle of the street.
What is striking about the Japanese cheesecake is the texture. I think ‘cheesecake’ here is a misnomer since this Japanese variety is nothing like the cheese-heavy classic version of this dessert. It was such an airy and cotton-soft consistency that I even questioned whether there was any cream cheese in it. The milky taste reminded me of the semolina porridge I used to (and still do) enjoy as a kid. I have to say that writing about it now makes me want to immediately shove my face in this picture of the pillowy slices of the Japanese cheesecake below. As a result of this post, my dreams tonight might be filled with Japanese cheesecakes and past love, both so hard to forget…
