Who's The Boss?

So me, the wee and a friend of thee decided to hop on the PATH train and headed on over to Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ. Carlo's, a long time Hoboken institution. It's proprietor Buddy Valastro are now receiving notoriety from the show The Cake Boss on TLC.

Known for their specialty cakes Carlo's also has a decent assortment of the traditional Italian specialties you'd expect. Being a bit of an Italian pastry snob I was most excited to try the following (pictured from top left) sfogliatelle, pignoli tarts, hazelnut tarts, pasticutti vaniglia, pasticutti ricotta and cannoli. They were also famous, and with good reason, for their crumb cake so of course I had to get some of that as well. You'll notice that I had to sample the corner of it promptly after leaving the shop. The crumb cake was dee-licious!
All in all I thought the pastries were alright. Certainly not the best I've had. One of the things that most surprised me was how small they were. They were miniature. I did like that they fill the cannoli shells with the cream when you order them so that the shells don't get soggy. However, when I got home and tried them I realized it's necessary for them to do so because of the runniness of the filling. It was just oozing out. I was also disappointed by the lack of decoration on them. Not only did they look blah they tasted kinda blah too.

My go to bakery is Villabate-Alba in Brooklyn, NY. Bar none they have the best tasting Italian Pastries you'll find in the States. They have an enormous selection. The pastries are at minimum twice as large and are less expensive! You seen the Carlo's Cannoli, now take a look at the Villabate cannoliSee what I mean? No contest. And yes, they taste as good as they look.

Would I go back to Carlo's? Sure, if I needed a cake like a firetruck but so far as the pastries go I'm still sticking with Brooklyn. You don't need a TV show to make a good pastry.