I don't like Italian pastries.

Nobody asked, fatty.

Who gives a shit? Fuck off, idiot.

How can something be sugary & tasteless at the same time?

Im so outraged, OP

[quote]How can something be sugary & tasteless at the same time?

ask the Italians, they've got it down to a fine art.

OP's pissed off because he can't get any real dessert; Italian cock.

In that case, OP, don't even THINK about trying Mexican pastries.

I've never lived anywhere with a lot of Italian people so I've never seen Italian pastries. Those actually look good.

I don’t like cannoli either. I do like tiramisu.

OP types FAT!

[quote]In that case, OP, don't even THINK about trying Mexican pastries. —Unless you enjoy dry mouth.

I think you've nailed it what I hate about Italian pastries. Too dry.

I agree with OP. A shit-ton of sugar doesn't equal taste.

[quote]OP types FAT! —It has to be said

so hilarious and original.

you should write - some quirky book. It would be a best seller.

[quote] American cakes are so much nicer. No wonder they're taking over the world.

No they're not.

YES, they ARE!

Maybe two of the cookies in OP’s pic are Italian.

Italian pastries sold in the bakery are nothing, and I do mean nothing, like the versions made by elderly Italian grandmothers. That generation is long gone. I Know there are groups on the 'net of Italians who cook, so those recipes are preserved somewhere. I learned from my grandmother. Homemade cannoli are nothing like the ones in the shops. Ditto for all the rest. Making them is a lot of work, and let's face it, they are not very healthy. But, man oh man are they DELICIOUS!!!

OP has never had genuine Italian pastries and cookies.

I have to agree. And they cost a fucking fortune. The bakeries use a basic bland dough for everything they make. It all tastes the same.

American pastry is not taking over the world. Get out of your bubble, dude. The only American food taking over the world is fast food.

I believe that, R17. My sister in law made homemade biscotti years ago and it was divine...and was NOTHING like the kind you can buy- and break a tooth on.

[quote]I have to agree.

You have to? I guess you were reluctant at first...wanted to join all the Marys...squeaking away.

[quote]The bakeries use a basic bland dough for everything they make. It all tastes the same.

Exactly.

I suspect the OP was kicked out of an Italian bakery once for asking for too many free samples.

Good, more for me.

[quote]American pastry is not taking over the world. Get out of your bubble, dude. The only American food taking over the world is fast food.

You know NOTHING.

When I first tried a cannoli I thought I’d be biting into a creamy filling like an elclair’s and was shocked that it was rather grainy and bland.

[quote]When I first tried a cannoli I thought I’d be biting into a creamy filling like an elclair’s and was shocked that it was rather grainy and bland.

Finally someone who has actually tried this shit - unlike the idiots who just left insults.

I used to like them when we had real Italian bakeries around, but now supermarkets are the main purveyor of the cookies and they add cheap artificial almond and artificial lemon flavorings.

OP, I think you are what some Italians call a "manga cake"

[quote]I used to like them when we had real Italian bakeries around

No, they were awful.

OP, you imbecile, the photo you posted is of COOKIES, not pastries.

[quote]OP, you imbecile, the photo you posted is of COOKIES, not pastries.

No not just - pastries are a general word, moron.

I've attracted all the smelly ones to this thread. The dregs of DL. It's quite funny.

A pastry is anything made from a dough made of flour and butter, but not necessarily including sugar. So most cookies are a form of pastry

Agreed. French pastries are the best.

We don't like you either, OP!

I like cannoli, but in general I agree that Italy does not excel with its bread or pastry. France, Germany and Denmark tend to do it better.

I don't even like Italians LOOKING at me!

Yes, the French are WAY better.

Nordic pastries don't really hit the spot. Too doughy.

I agree for the most part. Cannoli can be grainy and taste like chalk, and many of the little cookies from the shops are too dry. But I do love tiramisu.

Isn't tiramisu a dessert?

Yes, it is. A coffee flavored dessert.

Sfogliatelle, zeppole, biscotti, bomboloni, biscuit tortoni, gelato, panettone, panna cotta, semifreddo, torrone. I'm afraid "horrible, disgusting, sugary, and tasteless" is a broad and misinformed generalization. r35, although many breads and pastries around the world inevitably have a French counterpart, panettone is practically an art form that doesn't quite have a French equivalent. A well-made panettone is a thing of beauty. And a grainy cannoli just wasn't made properly.

I think you have to have Italian ingredients or a really good Italian baker to get the best of Italian pastries. They probably don't match up to French pastries, but when you get the real thing, they're really good.

and they’re dry too, OP

This looks pretty tasty.

Mr. Francatelli was Queen Victoria's favorite pastry maker.

A Franco piace la torta.

You need to go to an authentic Italian pastry shop. My authentic Neopolitan Grandmother and my mother and my 6aunties made great Italian stuff and then we had Vito's and hiscookies and cannoli were to die for. His sons took over and that shit is still good.

The "grainy" filling in cannoli could be ricotta cheese. I have to admit that I don't like the texture of ricotta cheese and would prefer a smooth custard. I'm not sure if I've just never had a well-made cannoli, but so far, I don't like cannoli.

Some cultures just have a more developed baking culture.

I do like panna cotta. So-so on the tiramisu (too soft, boring texture, IMO). I realize both of those items are not "pastries."

[quote]I do like panna cotta.

My grandmother made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. No fucking pumpkin pie for me.

Cannoli, zeppole and panna cotta are where my love of Italian sweets ends. Sometimes a nice amaretto biscotti with coffee.

30+ Christmases have out-panettone'd me out for life. I'll agree that other cultures have a better baking culture (French, UK, and northern Europe) -- cold climates usually produce better bakers in general, IMO.

I do have a softness for pizzelles, though.

The ricotta needs to be strained very well. mixed with powder sugar and mascarpone, some cornstarch. Use almond extract, crushed pistachio nuts, and chunks of chocolate.

People dissing Italian pastries or breads have not lived near Italian bakeries. I'm not Italian but had the good fortune of growing up in Brooklyn. fresh Italian bread is manna from heaven, don't get me started on the cookies or cannolies (the basic ones are best). The cheesecakes or anything cheesy tends to be too sweet and heavy. All the Italian bakeries could make excellent non-Italian breads, pastries, pies and cakes. They were really a godsend of good baking,

Silly trolling.

First of all, I will agree that one goes for the finger food, cocktails, and the sweets and chocolates and candies, first, in Italy. But they have wonderful Pasticceria with cakes and pastries, as well. Torino is a favorite - I go for the clothing sales, rather than Milan.

[quote] fresh Italian bread is manna from heaven,

Meh. I'll take a fresh baguette.

Cantuccini, sfogliatella, panettone, pandoro, sfogliatine glassate are all divine. Tiramisu, pana cotta, semifreddo, zabaione - also divine, although not pastries.

Let's give OP a break. He took time out from his busy schedule of sitting in his robe in Mom's basement, deciding which season of Full House to binge again, just to regale us with his pastry preferences.

r56 Tell that to a pastry chef. 😜

Nana is gonna put a bullet in OP’s head.

I agree OP - and their fascination with these bland cookies are baffling. Who wants dozens of sugar cookies in different sizes and with different colored sugar sprinkled on top?

This is the one area of cooking where they fall short. And Mexicans too.

[quote]Homemade cannoli are nothing like the ones in the shops. Ditto for all the rest.

Oh yeah, this again: the thing that’s not so great? It’s secretly being made much better somewhere else where no one can get it.

I enjoy all desserts because each country brings its own special qualities to the table.

OP - if you think Italian pastries are sweet, you'd die if you had Portuguese desserts.

[quote]I've attracted all the smelly ones to this thread. The dregs of DL.

There’s a puzzler — however did THAT happen?

who needs Italian pastries?

Italian baking is good, just not the best. I think it's silly for OP to single it out as being particularly foul, when there is a lot worse out there. Similarly, I personally know of [italic] some [/italic] Italians who over-rate it as being the "best ever." It's not -- French is king, and I would place a few other baking cultures ahead of it, IMO.

Yes, Mexicans are not good at desserts but I think most eat a lot of fruit.

I love Tres Leche cake. Best Mexican dessert ever

The Chinese make the worst desserts ever.

Way to ruin a good yellow cake, r67. Is there a version that isn't cold, wet slop?

[quote] People dissing Italian pastries or breads have not lived near Italian bakeries.

Or more likely they either have very uneducated palates, or they're just trolling.

Asians definitely don’t do desserts well. A relative was in Indonesia for a wedding and their concept of a western wedding cake was a horrible sawdust thing with grated cheese “icing”.

I love the feel of Italian cream in my mouth.

Are we still talking about pastry, r72?

Asians are not big on sweets. They tend to tone the sweetness way down to the point their pastries are inedible to most anyone else.

Puff pastry, R73.

Whatever you do, don’t bring Teresa sprinkle cookies

Pizzelles get no love on DL -- I guess you have to be fond of anise flavor. I inherited my great-grandmother's antique pizzelle iron. Haven't used it, but makes for a nice decorative kitchen piece!

Once again, we are confusing "Italian" with "Italian-American." You won't find many of the items in OP's photo anywhere in Italy.

I agree with you, OP.

And my experience is mostly New York “Italian” bakeries, and yes they are loaded with the cookies, etc. in OP’s pic.

Dreadfully bland. A bit of almond, a bit of anise, lots of flour.

Skip the dessert. Have some limoncello.

Or, have some Riunite on ice.

That’s nice!

[quote] But I do love tiramisu.

Try Sophia Loren's tiramisu recipe. I'm intrigued. I made her chicken cacciatore and it was very good.

On Saturday I went to my bakery and bought some seven layer cake. I never knew this until the girl behind the counter told me, that the cake part has almond paste in it. That's why it's particularly YUMMY. They also make FABULOUS danish.

You've been going to a shitty bakery, OP.

I once dated an Italian tart.

then just Keep On Walkin'

OP is an idiot and a cunt.

Sfogliatelle is heavenly.

Zuppa Inglese anyone?

[quote]Asians definitely don’t do desserts well.

DISAGREE. I love those little indian balls in the sweet syrup, Jesus fuck those things are DELICIOUS. Just don’t eat them with a cavity.

Most Asians serve fruit as dessert. Red bean is a common filling is some desserts which is not liked by many non Asians. Even their cakes tend to be lighter. Sponge cake filled with fruit and whipped cream frosting instead of sugar or butter based frosting. They just aren't into very sweet foods.

fucking shit on a stick

Looking at the gif @R76, even a deaf person reading her lips could easily tell tell she's was from NJ.

tell she was*

Thanks for sharing, OP. We suggest you just don't eat the goddamn pastries and try to move on with your life.

Why is it that everything Italy does, France does it 100 times better.

Architecture and opera, not.

I agree with r88 re the pleasure of a well made sfogliatella. Which American cakes are 'taking over the world', OP? S'mores? Devils Food Cake? Red Velvet?

pot brownies

[quote] Why is it that everything Italy does, France does it 100 times better.

Not food.

I’m in the northeast, we have a few Italian bakeries. Everything looks good but I don’t really like anise and they use it a lot.

Asians do make good desserts. Francis and Chef make a wonderful Christmas cake.

I agree OP. As for Italian cock, I’ve had a lot of it. Sure, you think it’s gonna be good...but....there’s an Italian attached to it so...it won’t end well...one way or another.

The french rule the pastry world.

[OP] pas·try /ˈpāstrē/Submit noun a dough of flour, shortening, and water, used as a base and covering in baked dishes such as pies. "spread the mixture over the pastry" an item of food consisting of sweet pastry with a cream, jam, or fruit filling. plural noun: pastries "brightly colored cakes and pastries" synonyms:ttart, tartlet, pie, pasty, patty, turnover, slice "I've come to get some pastries for tea" Cookies are not pastry!

Your loss OP.

[quote]My grandmother made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. No fucking pumpkin pie for me.

Why not just make pumpkin spice panda cotta?

R61, YUP!! They are made at home by Italians!!! Get out of the house more. Get to know some people of Italian descent who like to cook.

Yes, we all must get out of the house and beg for an invitation into the kitchen of some 5th generation Italian-American flyover frau before we can express even a mild opinion about the cookies and pastries we have actually eaten in Italy on multiple occasions.

I've had pastries in Italy, Rome, Milan and Ferrara, they are much better there than in the US. I guess it's better ingredients and they are fresher.

R90 - I agree. I'd kill for one of those right now.

i like american pastries too. if you don't like that fact you can lick my big asshole!

Dear extra "special" OP, half Italian here - I'm fairly certain PacMan cookies & Football shaped cookies aren't an Italian thing...

There are some good Italian bakeries here in NYC that do it right. When they use (not to sound like Ina) *good* ingredients like butter and mascarpone and real lemon and pignoli, almonds, pistachios, etc. They’re delicious pastries.

But I’ve had terrible “Italian” cookies and pastry, where the cheap shortening leaves a film of grease on the roof of your mouth and the icing and chocolate is grainy and flavorless.

The same goes for pastries like baklava. I’ve had cheap versions with corn syrup and almonds and shortening. The real deal uses expensive ingredients like butter and pistachios and honey.

And biscotti is very easy to make at home.

American cakes are taking over the world? WTF?

those dry cookies are not that common in italian "pasticcerie". Only old ladies have them (much smaller ones, of course: americans supersize everything), with tea or a cappuccino. You can find millions of better options, all of them heavenly.

R112 they probably both taste the same.

[quote]The real deal uses expensive ingredients like butter and pistachios and honey.

My family is Greek and we never use pistachios or honey. Walnuts and sugar syrup flavored with cinnamon.

Oh weally .... ? I bet I wouldn't have to twist your arm to put this Italian cannoli in your sweet little mouth.

R118, maybe I’m thinking of the Middle Eastern ones? A Lebanese acquaintance made them with pistachios/honey/butter and I still think about them. Delicious.

I too find Italian pastries boring. The french got it right

Biscottis are the worst. Like eating hard plaster.

I enjoy biscotti with coffee, sometimes wine.

Only if the cannoli is uncut

Biscotti and most other hard, dry Italian cookies are meant to be dunked in coffee or even in wine. That's how authentic Italians in Italy eat biscotti. If you just bite into one like you would a regular cookie, yeah, they aren't very good. Now I want to say that anyone who judges Italian pastries by the crap that's sold in Little Italy in NYC, is very misguided. Now, if you go to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, you will get authenticity. Same with certain places in Jersey.

These biscotti (Nonni's) are good. You can get them from Costco. And I don't even like biscotti. Don't need to dip them in coffee (they're not dry and impossible to eat).

The DL Costco Queen strikes again!

go throw your useless taste buds in a dumpster fire, OP

If you're that against it, you are obviously buying from a sub par purveyor of the alleged Italian pastries. Stop trying it in a supermarket. Find a good Italian-American bakery.

[quote]If you're that against it, you are obviously buying from a sub par purveyor of the alleged Italian pastries. Stop trying it in a supermarket. Find a good Italian-American bakery.

No, it's at the fancy/authentic fucking Italian bakeries in New York where I've had them...and in fucking Italy.

So bang goes your fucking theory.

[quote]I enjoy biscotti with coffee, sometimes wine.

R123 =

You still haven't told us which American cakes are taking over the world, OP. I'm looking forward to being enlightened by your superior taste in desserts.

Not OP, r132, but here's my favorite, and very American, cake.

My mom did make an almond amoretto cake this week which I think most will find agreeable.

R118 - FWIW I've had baklava made with pistachios & honey at a Turkish place.

This is American cake: Duncan Hines Devil's Food chocolate cake.

Here's the frosting for the American chocolate cake (Duncan Hines Devil's Food chocolate cake).

We are discussing dessert, true. However, that follows dinner. So.... the really important questions here are 1) did the pasta get sauced in the pot or in the dish? Did nonna drain it in a colander or not? And most important of all, is it called sauce or gravy??

They're really dry

[quote]This is American cake: Duncan Hines Devil's Food chocolate cake.

No, that is a cheap cake mix.

Italian cannolis and French macarons are the most overrated European pastries. I agree with those who said Italian pastries in general are too dry. But French macarons are always disappointing. They look so good, but they're always tasteless.

^I think some people regard macarons as a decadent treat to be scarfed down since they are pretty yet lower in calories, which of course helps explain the lack of taste in them as well. So indiscriminate. I like neither pedestrian attitudes nor pedestrian pastries.

r7 doesn't lie

I prefer homemade American deserts over Italian and French. I have a recipe for Perfect Chocolate Cake. I'ts FABULOUS. It's a triple layer cake with chocolate butter cream frosting on the sides and top but instead of frost between the layers it has WHIPPED CREAM. It balances the chocolate flavor of the cake and frosting beautifully. I found it many years ago in one of my mother's old McCall's cookbook.

I don't have a sweet tooth, so more power to all of you on whatever sugary binges make you happy.

Truly good cannolis are to die for, the ones made properly with mascarpone and chopped pistachio in a crisp, fresh shell (natch). Anisette pastries or cookies, however, are the food of the devil. Anything with anise or anise flavoring imo is disgusting and not fit for dogs.

Americans are wonderful at cakes and baked good in general. But their candy is horrible. It's odd.

It's the anice (licorice) flavor. I don't care for ital pastries either.

My Noni made biscotti and panettone. Using good ingredients and tranditional recipes make a world of difference. Also, her pastries were never too dry.

There are also many regional differences with pastries too, so you can't expect an American supermarket bakery to make things as they originally were meant to be made.

Perhaps you should go to Italy and taste the pastries authentically before you lambast them.

Blue Italian Ice is a good dessert and it's beautiful to look at.

[quote]There is NOTHING in this image below that I want to eat. NOTHING.

Not even the hot Guido working the counter?

I'm Italian. Nothing in the OP's photo has any flavor. The better cookies are the more authentic ones like pignoli cookies (made with almond paste and pignoli nuts on top), etc. Also, pastries like sfogliatelle (the seashell-shaped pastries filled with ricotta and bits of citron) are authentic and have lots of flavor. Lastly, if you really want flavor, fresh tiramisu is wonderful.

For something cold in summer, Limoncello gelato is great.

7 Up cake is an American pastry that's internationally known and eaten!

R151-Are there any photos of the GUIDO naked?

R144, I've been eating that cake for decades! My mom makes it for my sister's birthday every year. It is a *very* rich, delicious chocolate cake. You don't want to eat a big meal before having a piece. It's from McCalls Cooking School (step by step directions for mistake-proof recipes). I also make the plum kuchen recipe from it. That cookbook has many excellent recipes.

On topic, those shitty sprinkle, chocolate dipped, jelly filled cookies etc from Italian bakeries are awful. Called butter cookies but there's no butter in them. Dry and tasteless. I live in Brooklyn and never buy those cookies if I go in an Italian bakery. I know people who eat them but I never understood their appeal. Anything but them. I agree with Teresa Guidice; they belong in the garbage

They’re much better when they’re made with fresh Italian ingredients, which you can’t get outside of Europe. Their ingredients, especially dairy products and meat, taste quite different than they do over here.

I reckon lots of current 'Italian bakeries' aren't even run by second or third generation Italians these days. My local pizza shop is owned and run by Mexicans, the pizza isn't bad, but they cannot make Sicilian pizza to save their lives.

Basically, anything old school is dying. Craftmanship is dying. My hardwood floors were put down by Brazilian men, they did an excellent job. I think the same job done by Americans, there would have been complications. A lot of Americans are lazy, so many take the easy way out.

I was talking to my local shoe repair guy, he's run his late uncle's shoe repair business since the mid 1970s when he was in his early 20s! He doesn't have any kids and he hasn't been able to train anyone else to do shoe repairs. When he retires, I guess the neighborhood will be without a decent shoe repair shop. He's a craftsman, but today's young people all want to be rich. This guy does very well, he's not exactly poor. It's an honorable well paying profession.

That's what is missing from today's world, true craftsmanship. Not many people have, or want to have, old world skills, they all want to be instant millionaires, meanwhile so many of them have little to offer in terms of skills or real talent.

I love everything Italian, but yeah, OP, their pastries leave everything to be desired. My friends took me to an Italian restaurant for my birthday recently and the restaurant made me a cake. But it was no different from a typical supermarket sheet cake, with whatever they add to make the cake "moist" and that awful greasecake frosting (which I skipped). I don't know why they couldn't've made a real cake. They're a restaurant, FFS. The regular food wasn't bad, but this cake...ick.

It's a well-known fact that Italians cannot make sophisticated desserts for shit. Italian desserts are rotten. Most of them are dry and taste the same. When they don't want them to be dry, they pour a half a bottle of Marsala wine and coffee in it, which renders it disgusting. They should learn a thing or two from the French, the Germans and even the Spanish about dessert making. The queens who screeched on this thread must be all Italians who grew up with eating those nasty things, as did I, and associated them with their Mamma or Nonna's love, which of course endears them to it, but the desserts themselves wouldn't win any competitions. Una porcheria!

My grandmother made panna cotta, on which she would sprinkle crushed amaretto cookies. Everything else she made was somehow French or American.

please, somebody slap the poster who LOVES "authentic" cannoli made with... (drum roll) MASCARPONE. S/He must be from Appalachia.

The best cannoli I ever had was from Stew Leonards

[quote] As for Italian cock, I’ve had a lot of it.

And Italian cock has a lot in common with Italian desserts.

Best to just enjoy the moment, savor the cream, and get it out of the house. Otherwise, it gets stale and dry.

[quote]I prefer homemade American deserts

Do you prefer the Mojave or the Sonora?

I doubt that anyone here as ever been inside an Italian pastry shop

I’m so relieved. I thought it was just me. I really am not into Italian pastries either. I don’t think true white people like Italian pastries to be honest.

zzzzz......

I doubt that anyone here as ever been inside an Italian pastry shop

—Italian

R165 I've been inside many Italian pastry shops and also inside the pastry makers. They're all equally dry and boring.

OP is an idiot! My all time favorite travel memory is from Naples - I was sitting in front of some cafe on Piazza Gaetano very early in the morning and when I bit into a freshly-baked and still warm sfogliatella I came as close to nirvana as I'll probably ever get.

Whilst Miss OP is a very annoying cuntessa, she may have somewhat of a point.

That is, if she's speaking about Italian bakeries in America.

Because for every fantastic, authentic place, there are probably 10 more that have been Americanized, or are run by people who think they're authentic because they have a few vowels in their name or they had an Italian ancestor five generations ago.

Those places have as much to do with a true Italian pastericchia as Taco Bell has to do with authentic Mexican food.

One also must remember that Italy is not a monolith, but has various regions, and the foods and pastries of various regions can differ greatly.

Italian pastries taste like caca.

CARBS ARE EVIL!!! STOP EATING CARBS

R173 It's okay, Miss Carpenter. Have another cookie.

I was in Rome and Sorrento a few months ago the Italian pastries that were served in the small hotels were wonderful my partner who doesn't like pastries ate them and loved them. The pastries in Italy are better quality and taste better.

I love cannoli, the filling is very much like the dense, cream-cheese filling you find on a quality carrot cake.

But I agree, Italian pastries leave a lot to be desired, I especially detest those round, doily-like wafers.

French pastries are da bomb.

[quote]I love cannoli, the filling is very much like the dense, cream-cheese filling you find on a quality carrot cake.

No, it isn't. Ricotta and cream cheese are quite different from each other.

And that's two sentences.

Italian pastries in Italy look like this.

Italian-American pastries in The Bronx look like this.

I'll take a cannoli or biscotti any day over these desserts on steroids that Americans love. Look at this shit. Does this look like something any adult should be eating?

I agree OP. Italian pastries are pathetic. NOTHING like the Germans, and I include Austrians here, when it comes to pastries and cock.

R181 I agree on both counts!

those weird things americans call "pizzelle" do not exist here in Italy, BTW. I'm from Naples and i've never heard or seen those thing. Here "pizzelle" are small fried dough bites with tomato sauce on top and a sprinkle of parmigiano. They are divine.

Has anyone here ever been to Arthur Avenue in The Bronx? They say that's where you can get authentic Italian food and pastries.

R184, Yes, I've been a number of times. Lots of dry cookies, and the cakes have so much garishly colored, sickeningly-sweet whipped cream frosting that they're inedible. Often the decorating on cakes looks like a graffiti artist sprayed neon paint all over them.

Instead, find yourself a hot Italian and enjoy his cream, which he'll happily supply.

Fat, stupid, and deplorable. OP hit a trifecta.

No one disliked my cannoli when I was in Hollywood many many years ago.

R17 Italian tradition dictates that pastries are bought not made. Usually Italians made their food homemade but not their sweets.

R35 No. Substitute Germany and Denmark with Austria.

r161 cannoli from North Italy (specifically, Milan) is made with mascarpone and ricotta. The old Sicilian recipes call for plain whole milk ricotta, traditionally from goats milk which we don't normally find here stateside. Our ricotta over here can be very runny; it's fine to halve it with mascarpone or a less watery cheese so it's not a soggy mess.

I don’t like Italian food or Italian men. I like white guys. Brits, Irish, Nords, Danes. Anything white.

[quote] pastericchia

Mamma mia! (That's as close as I can get to "oh, dear!" with my limited Italian.)

PASTICCERIA

Those pastries look yummy R178!

What about pannetone, OP?

R184 R185 Arthur Avenue was good till the mid 1980s. It's gone down a lot since and you might as well go to Little Italy.

Pannetone, cannoli, tiramisu and anise cookies are all good.

The cookies are for eating with espresso/coffee and aren't the original recipes. They are the Italian version of triscuits.

[quote] I don’t like Italian food or Italian men. I like white guys. Brits, Irish, Nords, Danes. Anything white.

OK KKKKKKK.......

My favorite pastry in the world is the Italian mimosa cake.. It looks like mimosa flower, not even sweet, super soft.. Tastes like a giardino di primavera..

And there is taglio al caffè.. A scope of soft gelato in a short espresso, the espresso becomes instant cold when you drink it with a touch of freshness from gelato flavor. While gelato with a touch of coffee taste.. My favorite thing to do in summer.

How is taglio al caffè different from affogato, r199?

Canoli are so gross they make me throw up.

My local bakery sells a seven layer cake. It's YUMMY. The cake part is made with ALMOND PASTE. The frosting is CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM. The bakery is not Italian. The baker(s) is/are from Europe I believe.

Tiramisu tastes of vomit.

I grew up Italian American in NYC mid 60’s to mid 80’s. We lived on Staten Island, and my grandparents often went up to Arthur Ave to get the pastries for a big holiday. And since Arthur Ave was considered the gold standard they’d always mention it when handing off the box.

I am very familiar with NYC Italian American food, stores and culture - and I don’t like Italian pastries either. This is just my personal preference - you are all entitled to different opinions. There were always a few eclairs and (French) napoleons in mix my grandparents would buy - and those were the only two I ever liked - an as a kid I had no idea they weren’t Italian. Italian napoleons, cannoli, and all the rest - tried them, don’t like them.

I do like anise however - Stella Doro Anasette Toast & a cup of tea was breakfast most mornings before school.

I love almonds, but HATE almond flavored stuff. It's weird.

I LIKE almonds and LOVE almond flavored stuff like marzipan.

One of my favorites is Sfogliatella.

fresco, cremoso, affascinante

My other grandma loved Sfoglitella - so the pastry buying grandparents always got one for her. Rum Babas, the cherry topped things that are kind of like cream puffs - but not, the assorted striped cookies - I’ll pass. Give me another Perugina Baci.

R199 looks like a turd in a mug

Italian pastry = dry as hell and bathing in icing sugar

[quote]The cake part is made with ALMOND PASTE.

The cake part is DISGUSTING.

r210 What have you been eating?

Italian pastry is cheerful and old fashioned.

Sfogliatella, sfogliatella, sfogliatella, e cannolo.

One of my favorites, in Alassio. They even have a house brand bitter. Sure it's not Vienna, but its nice these places are still around. The coffee is good and so is the candy. Pastries - so so.

[quote]They should learn a thing or two from the French, the Germans and even the Spanish about dessert making.

They should just check in with Greece.

[quote]Sure it's not Vienna

Well, if it were, it wouldn't be Italian, now, would it?

The point being, pasty IN Italy isn't bad, its tasty enough, and fits the atmosphere.

pastry

[quote] They should just check in with Greece.

Why?

Grecian pastry is vile and disgusting, with about as much subtlety as a fart. Just like their food.

I guess you could always eat fruit if their pastry sucks.

Italian fruit is generally soaked in booze as a dessert isn't it?

I have had cannoli that made me throw up right away. Buy the real good ones in Sicilia or sometimes if you are lucky you can find in other Italian cities, they are amazing

[quote] I don’t really like anise and they use it a lot.

The closeted men in Italy (95% of gays there) really like using anus a lot, too. But anise is a close second!