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 Sam Pero will be serving his signature dish on Italian Day on Commercial Drive Sunday.

You can expect to see Pero's Cannoli King food truck during the day-long event, but be prepared for long lines. The dish has 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 popularity when he began selling his food on Italian 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's Italia Bakery, where the cannoli is made, went from producing 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 stay true to Sicilian traditions as much as possible.

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

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