There is an old saying that the closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat. It is hard to find a meat that is closer to the bone than shank meat. I occasionally braze them myself at home, but almost as often order them at one of the several Casa Ramos Mexican restaurants along highways I 5 and I 50 in California and Oregon. They are called Borrego on their menu, and they are sweet, succulent, and melt in your mouth. Greek and Armenian restaurants also prepare lamb shanks on occasion.

It’s coming into winter in Sydney and the perfect winter comfort food is lamb shanks. When it’s so deliciously tender that it falls straight off the bone, there’s nothing else that I can think of as the ideal hearty winter warm-me-up meal.

It was the feature in Bill Granger’s column in the SMH Good Living section this week, and just reading the article made my mouth water.