Mike's Pastry

If you ever find yourself wandering around the North End of Boston, you will stumble upon a plethora of Italian dining options. From pizza to pasta, the North End has all of the Italian culinary delights one can desire. There is however a debate about which pastry shop is the best and both can be found on Hanover St. Mike's Pastry and Modern Pastry are the two establishments in question. Both bakeries clientele are set in their ways. If your parents go to Mike's that is where you go for the best cannoli in the city. If your parents go to Modern, you go to Modern. I have been going to Mike's because that's where I think the best cannoli are in Boston. If you are ever in Boston you can indentify a customer of Mike's by the iconic white box with blue lettering. It is the way Mike's packages their sweet delights. Everywhere you go you will be stopped by tourists or people who are not in the know of where they can find the deliciousness that is a cannoli from Mike's Pastry.

To understand the greatness of the cannoli, one will have to know what a cannoli actually is. Hailing from Sicily, a cannoli is a fried tubular pastry dough filled with a sweet filling typically made with ricotta cheese, sugar, and other goodies such as fruit or chocolate. Marscapone cheese has been used as a substitute for the ricotta but for the most part ricotta cheese is used most often. The selection of cannoli at Mike's is wide. The variety is so immense that you can have a traditional cannoli or you can have one dipped in chocolate. There is a limoncello flavored cannoli, or you can have a cannoli that has chocolate chips in the filling just to name a few. The lines are staggering when you arrive. Sometimes on a nice weekend, you can barely make your way into the entrance. Everyone comes from the cannoli, but they are also famous for their rum cake, and their other italian favorites such as the lobstertails or sfogliatelle. If you are a tourist in Boston and have little time to see the sights, go to Mike's and eat your way through Boston. There is nothing better than eating a cannoli and knowing everything is in its right place.