what's new. 5

 

 

 

While much of this week was spent anticipating, watching, and digging out of Snowmageddon, I also got in some delicious cannoli tasting.  Even as I'm sitting here writing this, its still snowing... (or rather re-snowing?)  Either way, with the snow and the cannoli, I learned a few things:

-I love cannoli.  (o.k., that I already knew.)

-I don't care how old you are, an impending 2 feet of snow is exciting!

-Finding out I have a snow day still gives me the same relieved/excited feeling in my stomach that I got when I was in 2nd grade.

-Mother Nature is no joke.

-You will never, ever catch me on Lake Shore Drive in a snow storm.

-I'm a cannoli purist

-When you go to someone's house with cannoli, they will always be happy to see you.

-The best way to spend $30.00 is to have the neighbor kid dig out your car.

-The best way to spend $5.00 is on cannoli.

-For my money, the best cannoli in Chicago is D'amato's!

D'amato's

 

 

 

 

 

The final stop on my cannoli tour was D'amato's in the West Loop.  (Just a note: they close at 2:00 on Sundays, but if you are totally unaware of the time and knock on the locked door at 2:11 and with a sad face explain that you have a blog and need to try their cannoli, they will let you in.  However, chances are all they will have left is chocolate shells, and they will make you pay in cash.)

After puppy dog eyeing my way into a bag full of chocolate cannoli I headed out to visit my friends John and Marla.  It didn't take much convincing to get them to help me taste both the Pasticceria Natalina and D'amato's cannoli.  It has to be said that these two know their cannoli and I knew they would not be easily impressed.  Because we didn't want to have all the fun, their son Logan got in on the taste testing action.  As you can see from the pictures, Logan liked D'amato's, and so did we.  The cannoli was out of this world.  The filling was perfect, not too sweet, not too sour, not too thick, not to runny.  The shell, even though it was covered in chocolate, was still crispy and delicious.  Overall, D'amato's gets a perfect 5.


D'amato's: 5 

Pasticceria Natalina

 

 

 

 

 

Oddly enough, I heard about Pasticceria Natalina while I was at my first cannoli stop of the week.  When I explained my blog to the nice woman at Swedish Bakery who was ringing me up, she recommended PN because it was just up the street and she had 'heard good things'.  I'm not one to turn down a recommendation, so I ended up there the other day.  

There is a distinct 'vibe' to the place.  Not really coffee shop hippy dippy, but more high end baked goods meets art and a little radicalism.  That being said, they fill their cannoli to order, so the 'vibe' could have been almost anything and I would have been impressed.  Even with the 'vibe' and the fill-to-order service, I was a little under impressed with the taste.  Call me a purist, but I don't think you need to mess with a good thing, and these cannoli felt a little to progressive.  The shells had a hint of being almost burnt, and the filling was trendy when I wanted traditional.  I'm giving these guys a 3, but an added .5 for filling to order.

Pasticceria Natalina: 3.5   

Dinkel's

My plan was to try and find at least one spot in my neighborhood to get a cannoli.  It didn't have to be the most amazing pastry in the world, but I did want something close by that could be my 'place'.  I also had to do some creative time management to fit this one in, and headed to Dinkel's Bakery to taste test their cannoli wares.  I was pleasantly surprised at how totally delicious they were.  I'm a Dinkel's fan from way back, but I usually go for a donut or a muffin.  They have never even been on my radar for cannoli.  However, they are now.  This brings me to the only problem with Dinkel's: given my past history, maybe an easily accessible cannoli 'place' isn't the best idea for me.  For their perfect filling and almost perfect crust, I'm giving Dinkel's Bakery in Lakeview a 4.

Dinkel's Bakery: 4

sicillian bakery.

Oooohhhhh Myyyyyyyy Goddddddd...

If it ever snows 22 inches where you live, and your car is buried for days on end, I hope you have a friend like Becky to go out of her way to bring you cannoli.  Now I know what you're thinking, and no, Becky isn't a devilishly handsome black man... That's Kyle, and I had plans with him later in the night for dinner.  However, the afore mentioned snow and my inability to stand the cold meant that I kind of swooped in on Becky, took the cannoli, and hightailed it over to Kyle's.*

Not only was the dinner delicious, but the cannoli from Sicillain Bakery was amazing.  The mini size was the perfect portion for a person who had just polished off their fennel tomato soup and fontina / goat cheese / arugala grilled cheese.**  The mini cannoli shell was the perfect crispness and the filling was delicious, all be it a little thick.  I'm giving this cannoli a 4.5, but be warned, one of these and you'll need a nap afterward.

Sicillian Bakery 4.5 

*Cannoli foul, sorry Beck.

** If Kyle says he's making dinner, always say yes!

swedish bakery.

My week of cannoli tasting started out at Swedish Bakery in Andersonville.  My friends Ann and Becky invited me to tag along on a pastry excursion and who am I to say no?  Disclaimer:  I knew going in that SB is known more for their petite-fores and marzipan frogs than their cannoli, but because I was there, and cannoli was on the menu, I thought I'd give it a try.  With Ann and Becky as guest tasters we dug into both a Swedish cannoli (made with a cream cheese filling) and a traditional cannoli.  

Turns out, I am not a fan of Swedish cannoli.  (neither are Becky and Ann)  It's a little like a sour regular cannoli that also tastes like gross.  The traditional cannoli was better, but not great.  The filling was just meh, and the shell was o.k.  Overall we gave them a 1 for their Swedish and a 2.5 for their traditional.

Swedish Bakery: 2.5

SNOW DAY!

 

not. going. anywhere.

 

snow in the alley.  passed my waist.

 

under the knee boots, over the knee snow.

 

snowpocalypse.  now.

Chicago's shut down, and I'm officially declaring a blog snow day too!  I'll double up on the reviews tomorrow, but until then if you wanted to know a little bit about my love affair with the cannoli check out yesterday's post.

Happy Snowmageddon!

on the subject of why I chose cannoli.

 

  

My love affair started a few years ago when I was living in Manhattan.  I was working a million hours a week, stressing about everything under the sun, and navigating New York by myself.*  Stress can lead you to do a lot of very bad for you things, and in my case, my stress led me to the Columbus Gourmet.  I think it started innocently enough.  While CG wasn't my morning deli for coffee or a bagel, it was my stop for everything else.  It happened to be on my way home, it happened to have delicious dinners I could grab after a 12 hour work day when I was so delerious with exhaustion I couldn't have even followed the directions on ramen, and they had internet (which my apartment did not) and whatever else I was out of.  I'm not a huge dessert fan, but I'll take a baked good here and there, and I'd occasionally grab something the counter guy recommended.  At some point  a cannoli must have gotten thrown into the mix because I'd grab one every so often, if I was there and they looked good.

I'm not sure how the jump happened from recreational cannoli user to habitual cannoli abuser, but I can say my 'need' for a cannoli was directly proportionate to my stress level on any given day at work.  At some point my slippery slope of stress combined with readily available fresh pastries turned me into a daily user.  I became a rewarder, as in when it got to be around 3:00 and I was reaching break down status with hours of work still ahead of me, I would whisper to myself 'make it to the end of the day, and you can stop at the Gourmet and get a cannoli as a reward.'  Pretty much, when the going got rough, I got cannoli.  Those months, 'the cannoli months', are a blur.

 I eventually moved back to Chicago chubbier than I left, and with a new found love of cannoli.  While I'm still working on losing the pastry weight, I did manage to leave my daily addiction in NYC.  This week however, all bets are off.  I'm treating the entire week as one epic reward.      

*Save for a few amazing friends that I am eternally greatful to who probably drew straws weekly to see who would get stuck with lost, codependent, me for another weekend of letting me tag along.  

bring. it. on.

My original idea for this week was to go to a few cannoli places in the city, try their fare and then pick my favorite of the bunch.  A breakfast this weekend with my friends Ann and Becky made me think otherwise.  When I happened to mention my relaxed plans of  casually trying canonoli, I looked up to shocked silence from them both.  Before I knew it, Becky had the note pad, I was getting grilled on the characteristics of my ideal cannoli, and Ann was talking sliding scales for rating systems.  Somewhere in the middle of breakfast we came up with this list of what makes up my dream cannoli, and I realized just how important a good cannoli is to people.  So, list in hand I plan to spend this week diligently trying, testing, and tasting as many cannoli as I can. This week is going to be good.