Otto Cake / With the boon of bars and boutique eateries popping up in Chinatown, it’s only natural to feel conflicted about where to dine or drink when you’re in the ’hood. Last summer, with the opening of Otto Cake and Manifest within a month of each other, fellow cheesecake- and booze-lover (and Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts commissions project manager and thirtyninehotel art curator) Trisha Lagaso Goldberg and I decided that we could have the best of both worlds by creating our own cheesecake-and-booze pairings.

Given that Otto Cake, with its 86-plus flavors, rotates more than a handful of flavors each day, it was hard to narrow down our choices. Lagaso Goldberg and I had the following e-mail exchange:

Me: I think Otto Cake closes at 6pm. Want me to pick up two slices in the morning?

Lagaso Goldberg: TWO SLICES?! are you mad, woman?! you can’t have a cheeseybooze tasting with only 2 slices!! I’m thinking like buy a slice of every flavor he bakes up that day!! 6:30 at Manifest?

Me: holy god. we are really going for it. OK. i will purchase one of each in the AM. Manifest. 6:30.

After our initial e-mail enthusiasm ebbed, Lagaso Goldberg and I came to a compromise of three cheesecake flavors. The scientific method of flavor selection has been lost since that legendary CheeseyBooze Fest ’09 day, but therein lies the challenge and excitement of a spontaneous cake-selection-and-cocktail-creation challenge.

But how were two foodies without sommelier or chef backgrounds to proceed? A quick online search yielded advice to choose a wine that was sweeter than the cheesecake flavor, such as a Riesling. I broached this idea with Lagaso Goldberg, and we agreed this particular combination sounded too cloying. Screw the experts! We were going to go for it our way, come hell or high water. Or bad tastes in our mouths.

So here, approximately one year later, are the results of CheeseyBooze Fest ’09. Much thanks to Manifest night manager Justin Park for bearing with our picky palates and annoying requests in the quiet of an early weekday evening. Is it already May 2010? I think we’re due for CheeseyBooze Fest ’10. Hope this guide helps you to create your own, whether it’s with Otto Cake and Manifest or other beloved cheesecake and liquor vendors.

CheeseyBooze Fest challenge #1

Cheesecake: Key lime

Booze: Key lime martini

Verdict: OK. But what were we thinking?

In this case, the matching flavors canceled each other out and resulted in blandness. But it was worth a try. Key lime, with its sweet-and-sour balance, is hard to resist in any form. In this case, however, the sour lime pulp in the martini didn’t complement the sweet tartness of the cheesecake. However, there wasn’t so much contrast of elements as to create a curdled texture once both food and booze were in the mouth. The two did look damn fine next to one another, though, with slight green tinges glowing in the backlight of the sunset’s rays coming through the bar’s skylight. Of course each creation by itself was sub…lime (get it?). If we did this over again, would we change the cheesecake to complement the martini or change the martini to complement the cheesecake? This question is difficult to answer. We might have to bring one or the other back for the 2010 challenge. Maybe a coconut martini or cheesecake…

CheeseyBooze Fest challenge #2

Cheesecake: Kilimanjaro Vanilla

Booze: Shandy

Verdict: Off the cheezy-ain

This was our favorite pairing of the night. While racking our brains for a complement to the vanilla, we thought a soft lemon flavor would be good. After a flashback to our favorite British drinks and an excited back-and-forth, we decided that a shandy would be brilliant. We told Park that a half-lemon-lime and soda/half-lager concoction would be perfect. He then worked his magic into the otherwise traditional drink with sour mix. The effervescence of the drink with its subtle lemon flavor was a great palate cleanser, and mixed nicely with the vanilla. Shandy. FTW.

CheeseyBooze Fest challenge #3

Cheesecake: Amazing Plain

Booze: Espresso martini

Verdict: Off the cheezy-ain in a no-brainer kind of way.

As Lagaso Goldberg recently said, “Hey, if it ain’t broke…” Pairing a plain cheesecake with anything coffee-like is a classic combination. Bonus to Manifest for putting real espresso into this concoction.

Now that we’ve had practice with a trifecta of pairings, we’re ready for more. CheeseyBooze Fest ’10–watch out.