What Italians can do with lemons is something to talk about.
Sometimes they soak them in vodka for days and make limoncello. They sweeten it and freeze it to make lemon sorbetto. They mix them with oil, wine, herbs, and garlic and pour it over chicken to make (you guessed it) Italian Lemon Chicken...but these are topics for another day.
But sometimes...well, sometimes they make desserts with lemons. One excellent example of this is Italian Lemon Cream Cake. Now, if you are someone who's thoughts lightly turn to chocolate when you are thinking of dessert, please consider breaking out of your comfort zone for just a minute. Italian Lemon Creme Cake can be an amazing dessert. It can also be a so-so dessert, but isn't that also the case for some chocolate concoctions?
You don't have to be at a high end Italian restaurant, or at an Italian restaurant at all, come to think of it, to find Italian Lemon Creme Cake. If you are in Portland, stop in at Others! in Monument Square. If they have this cake the day you go, you will see it prominently displayed on the counter to the left of the reguster. Their cake is great, and could be enhanced even further if you choose by adding a scoop of gelato to your order, either on the cake or on the side.
If you are south of Portland, Stutesy's in Wells has a version that is perfectly acceptable. It may not be the best of the bunch, but it is good enough for a nice Italian ending to a great steak tip dinner.
If you are north of Portland, consider DiSanto's for dessert. The Italian Lemon Cream Cake that they offer is the best of the bunch. It is a light, delicious dessert that is also lovely to look at; it can hold its own against a chocolate cake any day of the week!
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