Friday, July 5, 2013

Cannoli, Canola, Cannellini...

Summer heat intensifies the aggravating nature of finding an address. Even if it is your hometown, you have GPS and you're driving your mother's Toyota Camry with it's fancy individual, custom temperature air-conditioning knobs. When we finally made it to the Italian grocery store, it was closed. After looking at each other in defeat, Eric pointed at the closed sign and shook his head in disbelief and a youngish guy behind the glass let us in. He was only slightly hostile when we mentioned that the hours on Yelp said they were open until 5:30 pm rather 5 pm. He even agreed to pipe the custard cream into the cannoli pastry shells, and to dip the ends in chocolate sprinkles. 




While we were visiting Utah, my mom had told us to spend her gift certificate for Granato's which why we went to this place in search of cannoli in the first place. She got the gift certificate as part of a gift basket at their church's auction. 

"Can you go spend this? Pick out something you'd like for dessert?" Mom inquired, then with a hush "I've heard they fill their cannoli's with custard right in front of you ." I overheard my parents bickering later, "Are Mindy and Eric going to go get the cannellini's?" "No the the canolas-- I mean the cannoli."

We ate the cannoli on my parent's deck after the sun sank below the Wasatch mountains. Jan and Stan, friends of my Mom and Dad were over for dinner. The six of us had no trouble polishing off all six chocolate-sprinkled cannoli in the styrofoam togo container. 

Cannoli is a Sicilian speciality. On my solo hosteling trip around that part of the toe of the boot of Italy, I remember eating quite a few deep plates full of tiramisu and probably a bucket of gelato, but never any cannoli. When I go back to southern Italy, that is something that must  change.

I'd love to have a whole argument using only cannoli and it's cousins.

Like, maybe:
"Cannelliniiiii."
"CANOLA."
"CANNELLINI!!!"
"CANOLA. CANOLA. CANOLA."
"Canola? Cannellini."
"CANNELLINI?"
"Cannellini, Canola. CANNOLI!"

PS - Lately, I've made a weekly ritual of reading the New York Times "Dining & Wine" section. So this week I'm excited about slumps, crisps, crumbles, sonkers and pie!

See you again soon, with pie, I suspect.