Crave New World

Even my fussiest friends will drop their guard when they talk about Pangea's desserts, which are not only beautiful but also exceptionally delicious. Bob swears that the dense, fudgy flourless chocolate torte is the best in the city. I prefer the more unusual sweets, such as a summery lavender panna cotta (tasting more of lemon than lavender, thank goodness) that quivers on a plate scattered with cherries and blueberries. Wendy Rudderforth uses puckery sour tamarind pulp to create a mahogany-colored sorbet that's somehow tart and soothing.

I'm not a fan of the trashy tricolored ice cream that many Italian restaurants pass off as "spumoni," but Pangea's silken spumoni semi-freddo, with layers of real cherry, pistachio and chocolate "half-frozen" meringue and whipped cream, is a revelation. And I highly recommend Wendy's newest summer delicacy, a tower of pastry and intensely sweet caramel called dulce de leche mil hojas. The name translates as "a thousand layers" of pastry, though it's actually more like 30 crispy, paper-thin layers of phyllo pastry layered with dulce de leche cream and topped with knobs of toasted meringue. "The desserts taste as gorgeous as they look," Linda admitted. "I could come here and make an entire meal out of pastries."

That's such a brilliant idea, I might just do it myself.