Comments (1) Best Cannoli - 2008
Victoria Pastry Co.
1362 Stockton (at Vallejo)
San Francisco, CA
415-781-2015
A good cannoli is like a party waiting to happen: Contained within its demure dimensions is enough ring-a-ding-ding to incite wholesale festivity and a conga line or two. Victoria, a cherished 94-year-old Italian bakery renowned for its special-occasion wedding, zuccotto and St. Honoré cakes, also fries up an outstanding cannoli. Begin with its outer casing, a delicate, feathery pâté à choux far removed from the jawbreakers endemic to most examples of the genre. It's stuffed with a rich, lush housemade ricotta studded not with the usual abominable candied fruit but chunks of dark bittersweet chocolate, maraschino cherries bracketing either end, a dusting of powdered sugar gilding the lily. The combination of cream, crunch, tart, and sweet is euphoric; one bite, and you'll find yourself striding down Columbus belting out the chorus from Il Trovatore.




























