Iggy's Bread and Five Dock delights

Apologies for being such a slack blogger. I've made the crazy decision to take a last minute trip back to the UK and Ireland with the Monkey next Saturday so my head has been somewhat full of flights, car hire, presents, accommodation etc etc. I promise to report back from the other side of the globe.

I am finally reporting on last Sunday when we had our neighbours and their gorgeous little girl over for afternoon drinks and snacks. We had a spare couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon so we took the opportunity to head over to Five Dock to pick up some Italian treats.

For those who don't know, Five Dock is a suburb of Sydney with a large Italian population. Its a little more off the beaten track than Leichhardt which only benefits the lovely delis, butchers and bakeries. Hearing all the staff and customers chatting in italian gets me in the mood for some serious eating! I always head to Rizzo Deli (107 Great North Road), where the staff are always friendly and heavy-handed with the tasters while we decide what to buy. On this occasion we picked up a variety of salamis, a few cheeses and some delicious sicilian olives. Sadly they were out of their pesto stuffed peppers which are the star of any antipasto platter.

We made a quick call to friends in Leichhardt and arranged to pop in for coffee on the way home which gave us the perfect excuse to pop into Pasticceria Tamborrino (75 Great North Road) for their amazing cannoli. We bought a mixture of mini cannoli - chocolate, vanilla and (my favourite) ricotta flavoured with rum and devoured them shortly afterwards.

To go with our italian platter I popped into Iggy's Bread (49 Belgrave St, Bronte) on the Sunday morning to pick up some of their delectable sourdough ficelle (photo above). Iggy's are actually an American "chain" - www.iggysbread.com who have come to Sydney operating out of Bronte. I have heard that the current hole in the wall is temporary until they get DA approval to bake in their Macpherson St (Bronte) shop which they currently just sell from on the weekend. As the two shops are equidistant from my house I don't really mind! The current location means I have a excuse to pop in to Favoloso for coffee which is always good.

All the goodies were collected and laid out. With the addition of our neighbours and a couple of bottles of wine, our Sunday afternoon was a success. I was especially impressed with our 2 year old neighbour's ability to eat around the stones of the olives. I'm going to have to start training the Monkey for that one!