The biggest part of the state, west Texas, has little more than miles and miles of miles and miles, and begins on the other side of Ft. Worth. By contrast, the community of West, Texas, on US 35, is on the interstate linking San Antonio, Austin, Ft. Worth and Dallas, and is near Italy, TX, if that helps.

The Czech settlement, named for its founder and first postmaster, Thomas West, circa 1882, is just north of Waco and an hour and a half south of Ft. Worth and Dallas. Which is why no one can whiz past West without pulling off the freeway to fill up on either dessert pastries, or lunches of ham and cheese or sausage-filled kolaches. Over the years, we thought we had seen all there was to see of West, TX and kolaches.

In fact, it occurred to us as we left the I-35 at exit 353, that we had never been into the town of West, just into the bakeries that line the service road we had just crossed. We were, therefore, delighted to learn that there seem to be as many kolache bakeries in West as there are streets. And there we discovered Gerik's Ole Czech Bakery. How had we missed it?

For, inside the comfortable, antique-furnished combination café, kolache showroom and mega-bakery which supplies fifteen convenience stores daily, we found the kolache that approaches the perfection for which we were willing to divert from our destination. Mary, who presides over the glass showcase filled to bursting with kolaches, placed our choices on paper plates, accompanied by plastic forks and spoons, and invited us to use the microwave seated on the old cabinet under shelves stuffed with kolache baking awards, many in the shape of rolling pins.

I imagined vivid flavors of the cherry, lemon and blueberry kolache assortment bursting in my mouth but the pull of chocolate is hard to overcome, so we gave into our chocoholic roots. As we dug into the baked pastry cup, in the center of the perfectly finished crust, were chocolate, cream cheese, caramel and large pecans which made up the concoction, as our plastic forks sank through the award-winning chocolate treat,, we grinned as the crust and filling disappeared on our tongues.

Not only were Gerik's choices of fruits, poppy seed, sesame seed and sausage-filled and various chocolate combinations of kolaches offered, but it was easy to see why they were judged the best year after year. Considering the difference from those we had eaten from the competition on the highway,which did the job for which they were intended, Gerik's kolaches had flavor, presentation and a weight not usually seen in pastry when hefted. I felt like we struck kolache gold!

We had not seen the prices in Gerik's anywhere else for years - a kolache is $1, with a price break for a dozen -- $11, and a huge cup of coffee, sized for dunking, is 55 cents.
The truth of quality, however, was revealed when the crust was challenged to the ultimate determiner: the coffee dunk test. A+! Over all, we agree with the wisdom of the judges!