Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rolls. They also serve breakfast, with a
creative assortment of croissants, muffins,
brioches, scones, and filled pastries.
But the real draw is the handiwork of
CIA patissiers-in-training, honing their bak-
ing skills on down-home items such as
strawberry shortcake, lemon meringue
pie, devil's food cupcakes, banana cream
tart, and New York-style cheesecake
(though, oddly enough, no apple pie). Of
course, they also turn out more exotic
items like vanilla panna cotta, chocolate
pots de crème,
tiramisu, a praline and
caramel gâteau, and a flourless chocolate
mousse cake, but those are American too
in their way. Don't expect like-Mom-made
simplicity—these are culinary school stu-
dents, after all, and they're here to learn
the shades of distinction between their
crèmes frâiches and their crèmes
anglaises. They're just not being turned
loose yet on whimsical towers and confec-
tionary flights of fancy. Not until they've
mastered the basics.
Culinary Institute of America,
1946
Campus Dr. (Rte. 9), Hyde Park (
&
845/
471-6608;
www.ciachef.edu).
(
John F. Kennedy International / Newark
Liberty International / LaGuardia (approx. 2
hr.). Albany Airport (approx. 2 hr.).
L
$$$
Inn at the Falls,
50 Red Oaks
Mill Rd., Poughkeepsie (
&
800/344-1466
or 845/462-5770; www.innatthefalls.com).
The Baker's Best
480
Cannolis on the Inner Harbor
The Other Little Italy
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore's Little Italy may not be as
famous as the one up the coast in New
York, but if you judge your Little Italys
according to where you can get great bis-
cotti and cannolis there—well, Baltimore
stacks up with the best.
During the great early-20th-century
wave of Italian immigration, Baltimore was
a major intake port, and lots of immigrat-
ing Italians never got further than this
waterfront neighborhood of narrow
streets and brick storefronts. And unlike
New York's Little Italy, Baltimore's has
remained mostly Italian American. The
1980s revitalization of the nearby Inner
Harbor and the gentrification of neighbor-
ing Fells Point was a windfall for Little Ita-
ly's flock of restaurants and trattorias,
which line High Street and Eastern Avenue
(try
Della Notte
at 801 Eastern Ave.,
&
410/
837-5500;
or
Sabatino's
at the corner of
High and Fawn Street,
&
410/727-9414
).
It's an easy water taxi ride from Federal
Hill, or you can walk from the Inner Harbor
across the Pratt Street and Lombard Street
canal bridges.
The city's signature Italian bakery is
Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop,
founded
in 1956 by Palermo-born Gioacchino Vac-
caro and still run by the Vaccaro family.
Much in demand, their specialties are the
traditional Sicilian favorites—rum cake,
casatta (layered sponge cake filled with
cannoli cream), and, of course, cannoli
itself, which you can buy either filled or
unfilled, with a container of rich smooth
cannoli cream so you can stuff the crispy
deep-fried sweet shells yourself. The
gelato and granita (Italian shaved ice) are
huge draws in summer. If you just want to
pick up a pastry or a box of superb Italian
cookies, you can do so from Vaccaro's
stands at Harborplace, at Market House in
Annapolis, and at Union Station down in
Washington, D.C.; expansion doesn't seem
to have affected the quality one bit. But
