To whet your appetite for The Pitch's annual Best of Kansas City issue, we're counting down our favorite Top 50 dishes each weekday until October 7.
Yellow is not a flavor. But if we're assigning foods to stand for their color, the lemon cake from Cafe Europa would be a fine representative in the box of crayons. Moist and bright, this is the dessert that I'll eat no matter how full I am from the meal that I've just eaten.
Lemon cream-cheese filling sits between two layers of moist (this word can't be used often enough in this post) cake. All three layers fall onto your fork, meaning you inevitably take a series of larger bites than you intended. It's sweet, tangy and buttery. The choice of a light lemon glaze on top is inspired. This big slice of cake eats like a beautiful, oversized petit four.
Great cake seems to demand the accompaniment of a cold glass of milk. Cafe Europa's entrant is no exception. Although if you need to make do with a cup of coffee, you'll find that it pairs just as nicely.
What I experience at the end of the meal at the Crestwood restaurant is the taste that I hope for whenever I bite into a yellow dessert. Lemon cake yellow, it's the best color in the case.
Our list so far:
No. 50: Chocolate Malt from Fox's Drug Store
No. 49: Il Parma from Bella Napoli
No. 48: Italian sausage and eggs from Cascone's Grill
No. 47: Orange Roll from Clock Tower Bakery
No. 46: Tacos de cochinita from Frida's Contemporary Mexican Cuisine
No. 45: Barbecued pork bun from 888 International Market
No. 44: Tableside fresh mozzarella from Jasper's
No. 43: Gyro Sandwich from Mr. Gyros Greek Food & Pastry
No. 42: Apple strudel from Grunauer
No. 41: Rice noodle bowl from dim sum at Bo Lings
No. 40: E-Crush from Hi-Hat Coffee
No. 39: Flight of Freshness from Fresher than Fresh Snow Cones
No. 38: Curried chicken salad from Cafe Provence
No. 37: Apple fritter from John's Space Age Donuts
No. 36: Pollo con limone e olive from Lidia's Kansas City
No. 35: Wedding-cake cookie from LattéLand
No. 34: Stroud's cinnamon rolls
No. 33: Smoked Polish from Werner's
No. 32: Burger and frites from Westport Cafe & Bar
No. 31: Paletas from Paleterias Tropicana
No. 30: Goat korma at New Cafe Tandoor
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