Just Desserts 7: Madonia Bakery

BAKERY: Madonia Bakery
LOCATION: 2348 Arthur Avenue, The Bronx
DATE: May 28, 2005
DESSERT: Regular Filled Cannoli
PRICE: $1.50

Disclaimer…If you don’t like cannolis, there is no point in reading any further, for just as St. Augustine’s confession of pure faith would have repelled Marx, so too will my passionate articulation of Madonia Bakery’s otherworldly cannolis be incomprehensible to the cannoli hater. However, if you have functional tastebuds, read on…

It’s simply the best cannoli in New York. Get out of Manhattan, away from Little Italy, and find Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Because it’s there, in the inauspicious Madonia bakery that you’ll find the holy grail of cannolis. When you arrive, don’t be confused when there are no cannolis waiting in the display cases. At Madonia, they fill your cannoli when you order. This prevents the soggy crusts and stale ricotta filling commonly equated with the city’s cannolis. All you have to do is ask a server and the cannoli shall be yours.

The shell sparkles with grains of cinnamon sugar, like a Cinnamon Toast Crunch square undergoing genetic mutation. When you bite into it, it actually crunches (you can hear the snap) – the pastry doesn’t have to be pried away with tiger like tenacity because of excessive dampness. Be prepared, if you are anything like myself, this crispness may catch you unawares, having suffered through countless flimsy tubes in days past.

And then there’s the filling. Those awful cannolis available in every two-bit pizza joint have deadened your senses – you expect the ricotta cheese to be so sweet that your face will end in a pucker usually reserved for the smells emanating from dogs and babies. Madonia’s ricotta won’t do this to you. You can actually taste the cheese, and the chocolate chips taste oddly like chocolate rather then the usual hardened black drops of Splenda. As your lips became coated in powdered sugar and your bites continue with greater and greater rapidity, you’re overwhelmed. You’ve found it. This is it. It’s simply the best cannoli in New York.

RATING: 9.0/10