It had been quite a week and I had been crushed by too many
encounters with the crazy world of Centrelink as I fulfilled my long list of aged
care responsibilities. I needed cheering up so last night we ate out at the
venerable Italian and Sons, the very first of the many funky venues which now enliven
Braddon. The most recent innovation is a bar out the back of the restaurant
that you enter, past a tall pile of firewood, from the side laneway.
It was barely 5.45 pm so I was the first arrival through the rear door and could
pick any seat I chose – which I did with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately the
extraction fan for their open fire wasn’t working so the stack of solid wood
logs sat quietly and coldly in the corner. I had an Italian Indian pale ale
beer with extra hops that I’ve had there before, a Birra del Borgo ‘ReAle
Extra’ Indian Pale Ale Extra Hops from Lazio, and it was so much fun I followed
it with a Spanish manzanilla sherry, the NV Delgado Zuleta 'La Goya' -
Manzanilla Sanlucar de Barrameda. I was forgetting Centrelink faster than a
politician forgets the last election commitment.
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| Vitello tonnato recipe in the international section of the classic Australian cookbook, the Margaret Fulton Cookbook, first published in 1968 |
Once in the main front part of the restaurant, having managed to snare a couple of places perched at the bar, I was confronted by a choice that made resistance futile. I began with the focaccia bread with rosemary – a simple but dazzling delicacy that caught the attention of Sydney food reviewers from the very start.
