I wasn’t always a dessert guy. In fact, I blame one man for my current sweet tooth: Osama Bin Laden. One night early in 2002, when I was still a cop, I was smoking a cigarette near the flaming hole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood. I was shooting the shit with a fireman when a backhoe kicked a cloud of dust into the air. He suggested we put our respirator masks back on, so I put out my cigarette and we did. The machine, stuck behind some heavy debris, tugged on a piece of rebar. Suddenly, it pulled the reinforcing rod free—it swung loose and smashed me right in the face. I had a concussion and a broken nose. Thanks to that fireman, I kept my teeth. Thanks to the rebar, I got a month off work.
Long story short, while I was recovering from reconstructive surgery, nose packed with yards of gauze, I wasn’t able to taste a goddamn thing. My entire face was swollen, and everything tasted like blood or nothing at all. My wife started bringing me pints of ice cream because the only thing I could taste in that pitiful condition was sweetness. Now, I love dessert as much as anyone else; probably even more. Here are some of my favorites—some are guilt-free, some are decadent, and all are worth the broken nose.