Cannoli-ventures: Cafe Roma in Little Italy

On my 16th birthday I brought two of my closest friends to New York with me for a weekend gallivanting around seeing shows and exploring. We went on a cannoli-venture back then, but were not forward thinking enough to fully document it all. The only remnant is this victorious picture of me finally biting into it.

Years later, one of those girls, Julie, moved to New York on her own to start working and now lives on the Upper West Side. We are both believers in taking tons of photos and are passionate about Italian desserts, so she is the perfect companion to hunt with.

Last October I spent a long weekend visiting my brother and Julie and since she had just arrived in the city, we did a lot of walking arond and seeing different areas. During an afternoon in Chinatown, we ended up in Little Italy and found an incredible looking bakery that boasted having won a cannoli competition. Needless to say we were determined to try this, but we had just eaten pounds of fried rice and noodles couldn't imagine having anything more. As difficult as it was to pass up, we decided to take our chances and try to come back another time before the weekend was through.

Two days later we spent the afternoon at Coney Island giggling like small children and strolling along the boardwalk. We hit it right at sunset and it made for some beautiful photo opportunities

And what's a trip to Coney Island without exorbitant amounts of fair food. The cotton candy was 2 for 1, okay...

We returned after dinner and somehow determined that the plethora of oil and sugar that we had eaten did not subdue our sweet tooths for the night. The long subway ride back to Manhattan convinced us that a trip to Little Italy was due.

 Also, we had sworn to go back and could not give up on this cannoli goldmine. So just as they were closing we burst into Cafe Roma on Mulberry and Broome St. and got some Tiramisu and of course the requisite cannoli.

It was just as gratifying as we anticipated and we sat as the only two people in the restaurant nibbling on our desserts as the older Italian man glared at us for asking for another glass of water.

I wish I could give a more in depth critique of the cannoli, but it was too long ago to remember the details. I do wish there had been chocolate chips on the cannoli, but the cream was probably rich enough as is. Believe me, it was tasty, and though tiramisu is a new thing for me, I thoroughly enjoyed that as well. Just writing about them is making me hungry.

This ended up being one of the easier quests, even if it did take a few days from start to finish. Victory was ours, and what a delectable victory it was.

recap:

date - October 23-25 2010

location - Cafe Roma, Mulberry and Broome st.

company - julie

food - cannoli and tiramisu
review - very tasty

Cannoli-ventures: Taking matters into my own frying pan

 

Back in Oregon, there were not the same opportunities for cannolis, so one Saturday night I decided to take matters into my own hands and make some. My friend Alex was game for the challenge. I found a recipe that seemed manageable and we picked up all the necessary ingredients. To my dismay (though not surprisingly) Safeway does not stock cannoli tubes, so I had to get a bit more creative. We decided to make tubed of aluminum foil to wrap the shells around for frying and bought some metal skewers that could be bent and shoved through the foil tubes, allowing us to dip them into the oil.

Thankfully we found a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the oil. Our frying technique consisted of Alex standing over the stove and adjusting the temperature of the oil for two hours with a giant oven mitt. We jammed out to Girl Talk as he held the skewers of cannoli shells in the oil for a few minutes at a time and I rolled dough circles like a maniac. We let each shell cool a bit before removing the foil mold and managed to get only a few tiny oil burns in the process. The shells got thicker than I wanted when fried, but it they had a nice crunchy texture.

As I rolled dough and Alex deep fried it, other friends made the ricotta cheese filling. Unfortunately it turned out more liquidy than intended, but it was all we had to work with. We threw it in the fridge for a while and let the shells cool completely. Then it was game time. I filled a giant plastic bag with the filling and piped it into each of the shells as quickly as possible so that it didn't drip out too much. They needed more refridgeration still, but after an hour or so they were ready. I topped them with sprinkles and chocolate chips, and promptly devoured several.

Overall, there is a lot I would change for the next time I make cannolis (correct equipment would be a start...), but this was a fun first attempt. My team was great and though it made the kitchen we used boiling hot for hours to come, they were very accomodating. It was fun to take control of a cannoli-venture and not have to wander around for hours to find one. Though I guess this probably took a while longer, there were so many! I got to eat cannolis for days... 

recap:
date - April 12, 2010 
location - Salem, OR
company - alex
food - cannolis, lots of them
review - need work, but good enough for now