Cheesecake and its Factory

My husband and I are visiting our old stomping grounds in Orange County, CA. We are here to remember the life of a very special person who lost her battle with cancer. While the circumstances of our trip are not the happiest, we still wanted to catch up with friends and visit the places we used to enjoy. The Cheesecake Factory was at the top of the list.

I have always loved the Cheesecake Factory. I have tried their Orange Chicken, Navajo Sandwich, Fried Chicken Sandwich, and even a special BBQ Salmon with crunchy onion straws on the top as well as a number of other delightfully delicious dishes. However, I've never tried what they are truly famous for, what they are named for: their cheesecake. That is until last last night!

My husband and I had dinner with his best friend and his lovely girlfriend. When my husband and I had finished eating our fried shrimp basket, I was happy to see that our friends had requested a dessert menu. Talk about a menu! Two pages of different types of cheesecake! His friends ordered the Tuxedo Cheesecake and the Oreo Cheesecake. After some deliberation, (they had more than one kind of peanut butter cheesecake!) my husband and I decided to split the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cheesecake.

First, the Cheesecake Factory gets an A+ for presentation. The plate was absolutely beautiful, a work of art, really. It had two huge dollops of whipped cream at either end of the generously cut slice and carmel drizzled over the entire plate. I almost didn't get a picture because I wanted to dig in!

The taste? Divine. There were so many different flavors all divine in their own right that the combination made it even more so. The crust was a thin blonde brownie topped with a thin layer of chocolate brownie. This would have been a great dessert on its own, but was made better with a thick layer of white chocolate cheesecake peppered with macadamia nut pieces. Did you know that cheesecake tastes nothing like cheese, not even cream cheese? It is simply and sweetly divine. And what could enhance this even more, but the airy sweetness of whipped cream and the buttery goodness of caramel?

A divine dessert and the company of two fantastic friends made us forget the sadness that brought us back to CA, made us relish the life we have, appreciate the small joys that make the hardships we face worth enduring. The next time I visit the Cheeecake Factory, I won't be sharing with my husband.