Ode to Lemon Custard

Last Sunday, my parents visited and took me to dinner in the Italian section of Federal Hill in Providence, as a belated birthday present. Instead of writing about dinner (at Zooma Trattoria, which was pretty fantastic), I want to focus on dessert instead.

We wandered into a square lined with little restaurants and shops, decorated with beautiful European architecture, with a fountain in the middle and an abundance of cafe chairs. It seems like the perfect place for a warm summer evening, or really any warm time, even though that day happened to be chilly. Still, I admired the scenery. We stopped in one place at random: Palmieri's Bakery Cafe. 

Inside it was quite cozy and colorful. The display was filled with professional and delicious looking cupcakes, pastries, and cakes. I picked a lemon square and a lemon coconut cupcake; not usual choices for chocolate-loving me. For a couple days these sat in a box in my room, until I got a craving for lemon, and remembered again why I picked them out. The lemon square, though sizable and filled with delicious lemon custard, was quite typical of lemon squares (read: really good). But I had never encountered a coconut lemon anything, and while my mother scoffed at this combination of flavors, I was intrigued. They seemed, theoretically, to go hand in hand - both were refreshing and cool flavors, to me, and both brought back memories of hot days in Belize. This cupcake, by the way, was one of the best I've ever had. It was extremely light in flavor, weight, and texture, topped with a fluffy cream frosting and sprinkled liberally with coconut shavings - though it seems like it would have been, it was not at all too sugary. In the center of the cake was a lighter and whippier (is that a word?) lemon custard than was in the lemon square, but mixed with the cream and the coconut, formed what I would call a perfect cupcake. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I ate it too fast.

This put me back on track for my lemon love affair. I'd never cared much for it before I went to Belize last January. Perhaps it was being in a different place, a different culture, that let me adapt to the taste. I first tried lemon meringue pie in a small shop in San Ignacio, the first city we stayed in Belize. I didn't know what to expect, because when it comes to cake, I typically default to chocolate. The fluff was piled high here, topping a relatively small square of crust and lemon custard, but the flavor was fantastic. It was very light, tart, flavorful, and all-around perfect. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I suppose it's a popular dessert in Belize, because we ended up eating lemon meringue for dessert two or three more times at our various hotels within two weeks. Though none have topped the first slice I ever had in that shop, I wonder if it was the novelty of the experience or perhaps those photos that make it look as exquisite as I remember. I'm not one to branch out in terms of what I eat (surprise), but this instance gives me a bit more hope for myself and many beloved flavors to come.