Locantro Fine Foods

On a rainy, cold and windy Saturday morning in Sydney (you know the kind that turns your umbrella inside out and you end up like a wet rat), we visited this gorgeous little deli in Leichardt. At 7am, it was like a golden warm oasis of light in a sea of grey concrete. Beautiful, Italian-owned patisserie and delicatessen, wide range of smallgoods, pastries, drygoods and cheeses. They also make a great, strong, and tooth-biting coffee.

It was deserted. For breakfast, Mum and I ordered two coffees, a blueberry danish and a palmier. I love palmiers: ever since France I've been obsessed with their symmetrical loopy shape and sugary simplicity- perfect for coffee-dunking and a bit of a nibble. I also had a bit of a stickybeak round the shop, looking for anyting in particular that I'd be unlikely to find back in Brisbane. Happily, I didn't find anything. Queensland is no longer a cultural shopping backwater: everything you'd get in a third-generation Italian community deli you can get at Black Pearl, James St or Balaclava St. They had some great-looking risotto rice.

Behold the chocolate croissants, tiny blood orange tarts, eclairs, almond-filled galettes, raisin-studded pastry wheels, glazed to within an inch of their lives, lime cakes, chocolate ganache-coated puddings and fruit-filled doughnuts (or beignets as the French call them.) I'm so jealous that Mum lives just around the corner from these guys. If I lived close by, I would practically move in. Unfortunate but true. There's no point in denying it.