Eton Mess is a lovely, versatile dessert: It's light, yet very satisfying, and appeals to both young and sophisticated palates. Served in bowls, it makes a nice casual family dessert or spoon it into vintage champagne glasses as a elegant finale to a fine dinner.

But how does it taste? Consider this: the sweet-tartness of strawberries surrounded by lush, cool whipped cream and punctuated by crunchy-chewy bits of crumpled meringue. The perfect marriage of taste and texture, especially if you've found a source for ruby red local berries.

Eton Mess is a classic British dessert.

Many Eton Mess recipes call for homemade meringues and you can certainly go there it you want. But I was very happy with a store bought version, specifically a tub of Trader Joe's Vanilla Meringues. It's also traditional to use strawberries but it's worth experimenting with other fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, passionfruit, currants, blackberries...