Cannoli @ Angelo Brocato
Among the most enduring of New Orleans sweets are the cannoli you get at Angelo Brocato's century-old ice cream stand. Its crackly shell--it resembles an enormous corn flake, rolled into a sort of pipe--is filled with a mixture of ricotta cheese, sugar, vanilla or chocolate flavors, tiny chocolate chips, and candied fruit. After the pipe is stuffed, the ends get dipped into pistachios. When I was in my early twenties, I worked around the corner from Brocato's original Ursulines Street location. I was known to go over there in mid-afternoon and eat two cannolis. How I did that without hypoglycemia I'll never know. I wouldn't try it now, but I eat Brocato's cannolis whenever I can.
