Dessert, Dining Out, Manhattan, Quick Post, Takeout, Upper East Side, YorkvilleKerry Alaric CheeseboroAugust 18, 2010baked, bakery, cafe, cake, candied, candy, caremel, chocolate, Dessert, desserts, Dining Out, dobos, European, hard, Hungarian, Hungary, Quick Post, shell, sweet, sweets, torte, ues, Upper East Side, YorkvilleComment

Hungary For Dessert

Andre's Cafe (European Bakery) | 1631 2nd Ave. (bet 84th & 85th Sts.) | 212.327.1105 | www.andresbakery.com

[mappress]

AFTER COMING BACK from a client meeting this early evening, I started contemplating dinner, natch. But one of the side effects of the new prescription meds I started taking (for being too awesome...!), is a smaller appetite. I still get hungry, but need less to sate that hunger (which was why I could only eat half of Tuesday's burger at a time).

So I decided to visit the relatively new Yorkville staple, Andre's Cafe, just for one of their usually wonderfully rich desserts, joined by my next-door neighbor, Gina, who just happen to bump into me on my way. Save for the Hungarian butcher on 82nd and 2nd, Andre's is the last hint of Hungarian food in Yorkville, a neighborhood that was at one time well represented by Hungarians, second only to Germany—in historical Yorkville (Old Germantown)—in populous culture. Many of the few remaining neighborhood Hungarians dine at tables here often.

And as I do plan to soon sample some of Andre's hearty, authentic and savory Hungarian dishes (such as goulash, hortobagyi, and lecso), I, like most in this neighborhood, swing by for the baked goods. Gina returned to her favorite rugelach, as I ventured to try a slice of dobos torte, a cake layered with chocolate and chocolate frosting, and topped with a crispy, crunchy, candy-like shell of caramel on top.

Taking our desserts independently home, I was thoroughly impressed not only with how moist the cake and rich-but-light the chocolate was, but was also impressed with how not overly sweet (how not like Krispy Kreme doughnut or Magnolia Bakery cupcake) the cake and chocolate were.

The real sweetness would come, however, from the thicker-than-brulée shell topping of caramel (some off it seeping into the cake during baking), with its clean, deep sweetness and it's "crackling" texture. Some leftover fresh raspberries from Monday's breakfast that I tossed on top put the whole thing, well, over the top.

It was good enough to satisfy my hunger, while making me hungry to try Andre's out again soon.