I have a confession to make

I hate cream cheese! OK, that's not entirely true. What I mean to say is that I hate cream cheese when it has been erroneously sweetened. I hate cheesecake, I hate cream cheese frosting, I hate cheese danish. I think the combination of sugar and cream cheese is just awful. Now I know this puts me in an absurdly small minority and I may just incur the wrath of all sweet cheese devotes out there, but I don't care. It has to be said.

Now normally, I am not so adamant about my culinary dislikes (however few of them there may be) as it is simply a personal preference that doesn't need to be imposed on other people. However, I find that there is a tendency amongst the general epicurean public to falsely assume that everyone loves cream cheese. I can not tell you how many times I have found myself drooling over a recently discovered recipe only to find that some sadistic gourmet has included sweet cheese. I am then forced to discard the oh so promising recipe or fiddle with it until it suits my taste, which is not something I’m always in the mood to do. Don't even get me started on carrot cake, which I absolutely love but which all too often is a chokingly dry vegetal mess, somehow thought to be "saved" by gobs of the offensive cream cheese frosting. Furthermore, I find cream cheese butting its way into recipes where it simply doesn't belong. Cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting? No, no thank you.



Now I started this overly passionate rant by saying that I hate cream cheese, which is not true. I like it, quite a bit actually. But only, and I can not emphasize this enough, when it is kept savory. I can not even begin to explain my devotion to the little Chinese-American delight, the cheese wanton or its equally delicious sister the crab Rangoon. I even devoted an entire evening the other night to trying to recreate a Saratoga Springs, NY anomaly called a dough boy (a pizza dough and seasoned cream cheese creation). Mix it into dips, fill a savory pastry, smear it on a bagel! Do whatever you please with it as long as there is no glucose involved. A thousand apologies to all you sweet cheese fans out there, but you'll not find any of those recipes here. Its simply not my taste.

-Rachel L.