Cannoli King food truck a fave on Commercial Drive's Italian Day

What do you have when you take 11,000 pastry shells and 500 kilograms of ricotta cheese? Lots of cannoli.

Bakery owner and food truck vendor SamPerowill be serving his signature dish onItalian Day on Commercial DriveSunday.

You can expect to see Pero'sCannoli King food truck during the day-long event, but be prepared for long lines. The dishhas become an Italian Day staple.

"For many years, it was a job nobody wanted to do at the bakery," Pero told On the Coast producer Caroline Chan."It was very tedious, very consuming. It's the dough that never ends."

Pero wasn't expecting this kind of popularitywhen he began selling his foodonItalian Day six years ago in an effort to bring Sicilian culture to the community.

"I was looking around the bakery,had no idea what items I was going to do that day and I just threw my hands ...and said well, we'll try cannoli."

Since then, Pero'sItalia Bakery, where the cannoliis made, went fromproducing 45 dozen cannoli pastry shells every two weeks to producing that amount in just one day.

Pero said he uses only the highest quality of cottage cheese, authentic Sicilian pistachios, and tries to staytrue to Sicilian traditions as much as possible.

When it comes to eating the pastry, Perosays small bites will keep the filling intact and the pastry from crumbling.

"Slowly bite away at it and you will have the greatest experience."