Making Cheesecake in China

Cheesecake
June 14, 2007

The short version (I’m trying to be more brief):
Making cheesecake seems like a simple enough task. I took on this task for someone’s birthday at the office. Found a recipe that didn’t involve using my oven, which I still have not figured out even with a thermometer. All the ingredients were easy enough to find, EXCEPT the graham crackers for the crust. Went to 6 stores and never did find graham crackers, but City Super had the Keeblers ready made crust – EUREKA!

It didn’t occur to me that cream cheese doesn’t get smooth & creamy if you mix it by hand. Back to City Super to get an electric mixer (only stopped at one other store first). Now the cheesecake is completed & it only took me 2 days to make it. So next time you see a shelf full of graham crackers, please think of me!!

The long version (for those who have nothing better to do):
So, it’s been a while since I’ve written in my blog. We’ve had visitors, so there wasn’t time while they were here. Then I thought about doing the daily blog thing about what I did with the visitors and it just seemed too overwhelming, for me & for the readers. I’ve felt a bit lost since the boys left last week, guess I just need to get back into my daily routine. There is more exploring to do of HK, but it is so bloody hot outside that I think I’ll have to put it off until the fall. The indoor options include the few museums and of course there are the ubiquitous malls. A new one just opened with an Olympic sized ice rink. There happens to be an international hockey tournament there this week, so we just might join the hordes & hit the new mall, for hockey, NOT shopping!

I was mentioning to Jen Pribble that I didn’t really think I had anything interesting to write about if I wasn’t out exploring new places. She said her friend just writes about her everyday life & sometimes it can be rather funny & entertaining. This week I thought about that, so I’m going to tell you about my cheesecake experience. A seemingly simple process made difficult in a foreign country.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to know that I am the Mom at the office. When someone has a birthday, I take a request & make a cake or pie. Seems everyone so far has wanted pies, because you can’t get them here. I finally found a place to buy pre-made piecrust (I’m just not very good at making it & I HATE rolling it out), City Super. This is one of the stores that carries lots of western items, but it means a trek down the “hill” to get to it. Last week was Ruby’s birthday. Ruby does not like anything sweet, so she is a challenge. She finally admitted that she does like cheesecake, so I thought that would be a fairly simple request. She was away for her actual birthday, so I said I’d bring in the cake on Friday (tomorrow).

My wonderful sister sent me a recipe that does not involve baking. This is great, because I still have not figured out my oven. It either takes hours to cook something that should take 30 minutes or it overcooks things that I put in for a shorter than called for time. I have a thermometer in there, but it still doesn’t cooperate. My sister says maybe it’s the altitude since we are on the 31st floor – right!

The cheesecake recipe has very few ingredients: graham crackers, butter, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk & lemon. SIMPLE I thought. I found everything except the graham crackers at our local store, I was very excited. I know the crust can be out of any cookie, but the choices here are not great & Ruby doesn’t like chocolate or anything very sweet. I went to 6 different stores yesterday looking for graham crackers. They are so commonplace in the US, but nobody here even knew what I was talking about. I felt like when we moved to NC & I asked for Fluff at the store & they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, but at least they spoke English, well sort of.

Finally, at the 6th place, City Super (why didn’t I just go there first?), I found pre-made graham cracker crust, no boxes of graham crackers, but this would be fine. Interestingly, they had about 4 different varieties of crusts made by Keebler. Those cleaver little elves! This is also the first place I’ve seen brownie mix other than Betty Crocker (which we think is too cakey). And the brand they had, Ghirardelli!! I’m excited (this is a Father’s Day treat, not regular fare). It’s interesting the things you get excited about when away from home.

With crust in hand I felt like I was all ready to complete my task & have cheesecake in the office on Friday as promised. So today, Thursday I made the cake. The only cream cheese you can get here is the regular, so it is not as soft & creamy as the Neufchatel that I’ve used in the past. I let it sit out so it would soften. I even used fresh lemon juice. I mixed everything together with a spoon & realized that cream cheese mixed by hand doesn’t get smooth & creamy. Lumps are OK with mashed potatoes, but not cheesecake.

We don’t have a lot of storage space, I don’t do too much cooking, and we won’t be here that long so we had avoided getting many electrical appliances that we won’t be able to take home (different plugs). I decided it was time to break down & get a mixer. Checked the closest place I knew that had kitchen items, Japan Home Store, but alas, no mixers. I figured I might as well go right to City Super. This involved walking down the hill to the mall, but I managed to find a time today when it wasn’t raining & made the venture back to City Super. I am happy to say that I found the mixer. They even had a manual one, but it was tiny & the electric one was not much more expensive. AND best of all, I didn’t have to go to Ikea, that would have been my next attempt!!

So the cheesecake is now well mixed & hopefully nice & smooth and creamy. I’ll take it in tomorrow & hopefully it will be good (they won’t tell me otherwise). I got some mango, kiwi & strawberries to put on top. We get the best mangos here & I’ve become a mango addict. If you’ve never had mango & sticky rice, go to a Thai restaurant & get some, it is wonderful!!

I guess you can make a story out of simple daily experiences, especially when you live in China. It might not come across as amusing as I thought it all was at the time. Just funny how something that seems like it will be so simple can consume so much time & energy. Another example, today after completing the pie I went to the local Italian deli (about a 10 minute walk) to get some hummus (the only place in the neighborhood that I’ve found it & it is very good) and they were sold out. I know, why didn’t I get some when I was at City Super today – I’m asking myself that same question! That was a wasted 20 minute walk, except for the exercise.