Here’s the problem, I was so busy yesterday I didn’t have time to write. That means I have too much to write about today when I’m also busy. Finding the perfect blogging/life balance is difficult.
The first half of my Saturday double header was the New York Cannoli Crawl. This started at the ungodly hour of 10:30 AM. It is well worth it. The first stop was at Rocco’s on Bleecker Street right by the West 4th Street station. That made the early hour much easier to deal with, I could get there on one train in about 45 minutes. Then to my great shame, I was late. The first D train I boarded was taken out of commission before it left the station. This is a very personal tour, the lovely family joining me on the tour had to wait for me.
The tour is led by professional Sicilian Allison Scola. Allison should be familiar to My Gentle Readers as she has appeared in this blog as both a good friend and favorite musician as half of the band Villa Palagonia. She is also the person behind Experience Sicily, boutique personalized tours of Sicily. Allison has made a career out of Sicilian music, travel, and food.
The tour started at Pasticceria Rocco where we had a classic New York cannolo and a cappuccino. This is exciting. I changed what I was writing in the middle and went from plural to singular form. Grammar check caught the discrepancy between the singular pronoun “a” and the plural cannoli that I originally wrote. Grammar check must have gone on the cannoli tour. I’m not going to give away all the cannoli secrets, you’ll have to take the tour for that, but there is one important one you should know. A cannolo needs to be freshly filled shortly before serving or the shell will lose its crunch. If a bakery tries to sell you a filled cannolo from a display case they are short-changing you. Don’t accept that. It was the best cannolo I ever ate. I used to think I didn’t like cannoli until I had some that Allison made. This was the best cannoli I ever had. We were given cannoli scorecards rated on three criteria, shell, cream, and overall. We were all ready to give it perfect 5’s but decided to wait till we had others to judge it by.
The next stop was Father Demo square. I bet you’ve passed it many times, it’s on the corner of West 3rd street and 6th avenue. We learned who father Demo was and then the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Many of the workers there lived in that neighborhood. This was part of Little Italy which was much less little than it is now. We might call it Piccola Italia Irredenta.
The next stop was Raffetto’s Pasta Shop. We didn’t eat there but Allison and other people on the crawl bought freshly cut pasta. It’s a soft egg-based pasta not the stiff dry pasta you find in supermarkets. The pasta is cut into custom width strips by a machine that can best be described as a guillotine with a conveyor belt. It is a horror film prop waiting for its opportunity. The pasta needs to be refrigerated or frozen, so I didn’t buy any. I might go back.
Then we moved on to Unico|Taste of Sicily for Palermo-style Arancina. Arancina is Sicilian for orange. It’s not an orange. It’s a rice ball. The orange color comes from saffron. Both rice and saffron came to Sicily with the Arabs. Some of my older friends are sniggering as they know I don’t eat rice. I once said, “I lost all my friends because I don’t like rice.” It looked pretty good and when in Palermo do as the Palermons do, so I tried it. Mine was filled with meat. It was very good. It didn’t have the rice texture that I dislike. It was a fritter made of rice.
Then we went to Famous Ben’s Pizza of Soho for Palermo-style pizza known as Sfincione. It means big sponge. It’s not pizza. There’s no cheese. It isn’t covered in typical pizza sauce. The sauce is largely sweet onions. I’m not a fan of onions though the crust was great. I did not expect to like the Arancina and did. I expected to like the Sfincione and didn’t. Life brings surprises. Culinary travel broadens the mind.
The next stop was Piccola Cucina Estiatorio. Piccola Cucina means ‘little kitchen. The main dish we ate also had onions and wasn’t to my taste, but the bread and olive oil were fantastic.
Polosud on Mott Street, it means South Pole, was the next cannoli stop. Where the other food places were old family owned establishments filled with charm that had been in their location for decades this looked like any of the new gelato shops popping up around the city. What they have is real Sicilian-style, not New York-style cannoli. The ricotta is made from sheep’s milk, not cow’s. It is flash-frozen in Sicily and shipped directly to the shop. There is a cocoa in the shell. The shell is coated in marsala, not vinegar, to give it the bubbles. Instead of chocolate chips there was candied orange peel. The thought of this combination did not appeal to me. I was quite skeptical of sheep’s milk and orange peel. Then I took a bite. That first cannolo’s reign as best cannoli I ever ate was short. It was so good that it is misleading to use the same word, cannoli, to describe both. Everyone in the group agreed. This was heavenly. The baker explained how they are made; these are true artisan cannoli. In most places the cream is as much as 50% sugar. At Polosud it is only 20%. They can do this because the sheep’s milk is far more flavorful.
The place looked like a gelato shop because it is a gelato shop. It won the award for best gelato in New York City. I had a taste. It was amazing. Here’s the problem, when I go back there do I get a cannoli or gelato? Knowing me I’ll get both. We still didn’t rate it as we had one more cannolo to go.
The final cannolo was at Caffe Palermo aka the Cannoli King. This is on Mulberry street in the heart of little Italy. The cannoli were very good, much better than you’ll find at the more famous Ferrara’s around the corner, but after Polosud any cow’s milk ricotta cannolo was going to pale in comparison. The espresso I had with it was excellent as was the company.
There is so much more to the tour than the food, there’s history. I can’t believe I never saw the original police HQ on Centre Street. That’s exactly the kind of place my father would have taken me to as a kid. The building is beautiful. It’s no longer used by the police. As happens to all beautiful buildings in New York that are no longer used for their original purpose it’s now condos. The dome is part of one giant apartment. If anyone wants to buy it for me I’ll be very grateful. While there Allison taught us about the Black Hand and Joseph Petrosino who fought it. He was the first Italian-speaking detective in New York. He was assassinated while investigating the Black Hand in Palermo. There is a film about him starring Ernest Borgnine and a new one in development by Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s a great story. We learned about the tenements and how the first wave Italian immigrants lived. I’ve lived in New York all my life and learned so much. Allison is a great tour guide. When we were finished we showed Allison our grades. As you can tell from my descriptions Polosud got all perfect 5’s. We all graded it the best. Then Allison gave us our official Cannoli Connoisseur Certificates. If you are not a certified connoisseur do not argue cannoli with me.
After the tour both Allison and I had a few hours to kill so we went to a book shop and then Honeybrains, an ill-named coffeeshop. It sounds like it serves zombies. I had a hot chocolate and Allison’s company.
That was not the end of my day; the night cap was to come. I went to a house concert in Hell’s Kitchen. Two of my friends were playing Dan Rauchwerk and Mike Laureanno. The hosts were Mike, not that Mike, a different Mike, and Meredith. Mike is producing Dan’s next album. It is a beautiful spacious apartment. Dan’s family, Michael, a third Mike, Star, Noah, and Autumn. The Rauchwerk men all have biblical names and the women hippy names. That’s how I remember them. Dan’s girlfriend Anna was there too. Anna is always amused by Dan and me together. “You too don’t have conversations you just make fun of each other.” When Dan said he was happy to be playing for friends and that he didn’t often play for enemies I objected and said, “What about me?” Mike, musician Mike, said that I’m not an enemy, I’m a nemesis. That is exactly what I had been thinking.
Mike Laureanno is a classic folk singer. He writes brilliant meaningful songs. It’s not just lyrics and the songs aren’t drones. They have real melodies that you can whistle. That shouldn’t be rare, but it is rarer than it should be.
My nemesis contract doesn’t allow me to say anything nice about Dan. I can repeat that Mike said that Dan is a great songwriter. I can truthfully report that I laughed at his banter, though not as much as Dan laughed. He broke himself up at one point. Is that mean enough to make Anna happy? I hope so.
I would normally write a lot more about the show but I’m already 1620 words into this entry. I already missed the first thing I wanted to do today, The Hot Jazz Jumpers at the New York Vintage Train Underground Swing and Jazz Festival. They played on the platform at 145th street and then on one of the vintage trains. This is an amazingly fun show. I’ve done it before. I just couldn’t get myself out of the house in time. Now I have to wait an entire year to see it again. To make it worse I don’t see the Hot Jazz Jumpers, which has the same personnel as The Scootches, lead by Nick Russo & Betina Hershey, nearly enough.
I missed that but I wrote this epic entry recapping an epic day. I should have told the day’s story as a modern version of the Odyssey. Much of the Odyssey takes place in Sicily so I heard plenty of that yesterday. Here’s what you have to do. Go on the cannoli crawl and see Dan and Mike next chance you get. Then you won’t have to read what I said. Then check out the Hot Jazz Jumpers or the Scootches. That’s even better than reading what I have to say about them.
Wise Madness 