Weapons of Mass Destruction 1 - The Panzarotti

I think I've said before that Sydney's a city obsessed with food and coffee; probably more so than any city I've ever visited, so it stands to reason that any recommendation from a Sydneysider on anything you can shove into your gob is probably worth following up on.

(And as an aside, I always think it's rather ironic, possibly even a bit insulting, that Sydneysiders are so blessed in the food department. The original European Sydneysiders very nearly died of starvation and suffered years of malnutrition and now here we are with the most incredible selection of nosh on the planet. Then again - perhaps the history of starvation feeds the obsession).

A couple of months ago I received specific credible intelligence of this particular weapon of mass destruction; the panzarotti. In fact, the intelligence was so specific that it practically included the map co-ordinates for Sulfaro's bakery on Ramsay Street in Haberfield, where they bake them fresh every morning (Ramsay Street in Haberfield being almost right nextdoor to Boomerang Avenue, two adjacent street names that never failed to raise a smile on my Monday morning home visits from the university).

Haberfield's an area in the west of the city where loads if Italian immigrants originally came to settle and generations later it's still populated by their children, so if you walk down the main street you'll find large Italian ladies spilling sideways out of aussie singlets and men with armfuls of bread discussing the morning paper in Italian. And the coffee's to die for.

So after a crappy start to the day, what better way to soothe the foodie's soul than to go hunting and gathering (and anyway, I've been rehearsing the name of the bloody things all these weeks - like Lanzarote but with a P - so it was time to go get them). And we weren't disappointed, the fresh dough surrounding a centre of sweet-tasting ricotta cheese so delicious it's impossible not to smile while you eat it.

Always put your faith in credible intelligence. Always trust the locals.