NOT FATTENING AT ALL! GOOD FOR YOU!

An author whom I like appears to have a pet bunny. With whom she has conversations. About cheesecake. The bunny disapproves of cheesecake late at night as a casual snack. Which I agree with, because nothing about cheesecake should be casual. It should be eaten with great deliberation, in a contemplative state of mind. That way, if you decide to have a second or a third piece, you know what you are doing and have weighed all the options, seriously taking into account what your relatives might say, and there are no crumbs or witnesses.

There should be late night coffee shops with pie and cheesecake next to twenty four hour fitness centres. That way you can reward yourself for doing the treadmill plus the stretches and lifts. In this neighborhood, we don't have that -- our pretense to be civilized is only haphazard at best -- but we do have a cult favourite donut place opposite the gym.

I have never been inside that gym. No need to, I am a scrawny man.
And I had a big wedge of cheese cake before bed.

When I was in my early twenties there were several times when I ate nearly an entire cheesecake. I still feel good about that. Cheesecake builds healthy bones because it's filled with calcium. Which, as the years advance, is something to which you should pay attention. My doctor at Chinese hospital particularly told me that I should up my calcium intake as I was getting older, and when I asked him what foods he recommended, he mentioned 'cheese'. Well, dairy in general, but he did say 'cheese'. Which is odd, when you consider that generally speaking almost his entire patient demographic is averse to cheese.

Most Asians are. Except for the Japanese, who have raised cheesy poofs to an art form. Canto teenagers, who love pizza and boba tea. And Hong Kong folks who crave porkchops on spaghetti carbonara with a layer of melted cheese on top that would stop your arteries dead in their tracks. And cheesy biscuits, chips, crisps, crunchies, etcetera made for the Asian market. Plus scrumptious cheesecake at several Asian American bakeries.

[Many times I have seen patrons carrying boxes of pizza into bars and mahjong parlours in Chinatown at night.]

They still haven't discovered cheese in a can yet, but it's just a matter of time.

As a Dutchman, naturally this gives me great pleasure.


By the way, that illustration of the Raspberry Crown Borer (pennisetia marginata), a moth the larva of which damage valuable plants like Blackberry, Boysenberry, Loganberry, Raspberry, Salmonberry, Thimbleberry, is there only because Armand mentioned that it sounded like desert. There actually is a pastry called the raspberry crown.
Which can in fact be delicious.
Late at night.



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