Best of 2003: Best Luscious Latin Dessert

Tres Leches Cake,
Amici
564 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas
760-753-9050

Eating at intimate little Amici is like going to a dinner party presided over by a brother-sister team of culinary globetrotters, originally from Cuzco, Peru. Their signature dessert is a Honduran "Tres Leches" cake. And it's a lulu, all sweetness and light -- but not too sweet. A tall wedge of fluffy sponge cake is soaked in a syrup made of "three milks" (condensed, evaporated, and whole milk or half-and-half). Miraculously, the syrup, too, seems light. Airy whipped cream on top evaporates in the mouth, leaving only flavor.