Given the scarcity of desserts on otherwise robust restaurant menus, American diners can be forgiven for thinking that the Indian subcontinent generally lacks in postprandial delights. Nothing could be further from the truth, as just one visit to Rajbhog Sweets will attest.

The name "Rajbhog" means roughly "the Maharaja's offerings to the Gods," and the family-run business has been serving up appropriately grand Desi treats for over twenty years. Submitted for your approval, one gulab jamun, a dense wheat-colored ball of cake completely soaked through with honey. One item resembling a Scottish snowball is actually kala jam, a dark brown sphere of dense cake dusted with white coconut flecks. A cake shaped like a ruddy apple -- complete with a mini brown stem -- turns out to have a dense layer of very sweet, marizpan-like candy surrounding a green apple jelly center. Chandrakola looks like a cream-stuffed date, but is actually a dense honey cake baked until dark brown, sandwiching a layer of sweet condensed milk cream, garnished with a single pistachio.

No need to stop there. The shop also sells many flavors of the milk and butter-based treats halwa, burfi, katli, and ladoo; two kinds of crunchy sweet jalebi; a selection of creamy kulfi; several nut-based treats and cookies; as well as regional specialities and seasonal items. Those who prefer savory to sweet will enjoy sampling a variety of snack mixes including spiced nuts, fried lentils, and toasted chickpeas. Rajbhog also ships beautiful gift baskets, offers catering for parties, makes their own line of frozen foods, and has a vegetarian steam table buffet at their Jackson Heights location.

Rajbhog Sweets is located at 72-27 37th Avenue (between 72nd and 73rd Streets) in Jackson Heights, Queens, 124-20 Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens and 42-47 Main Street in Flushing, Queens. See their website for additional locations in New Jersey and now Atlanta. Most sweets for sale at Rajbhog are $5.99/lb -- four little sweets will weigh about 0.5 lb.