Friday, November 6, 2009

Review: Adriano Zumbo, Balmain

Macarons, macarons every where,
And all inside did shriek;

Macarons, macarons every where,

Nor any particular one to seek.


Never have I seen so many macarons in my life! Pink ones, green ones, purple ones, 10 billion different chocolate ones, orange ones, bright red ones...you could fill the colours of the rainbow with all the different macarons Adriano Zumbo piled his store with today.

60 flavours, one day. And all the mouths of Zumbo-fans around Sydney to fill. The flavours range for the typical favourites such as Chocolate & Praline and Strawberries & Cream to the slightly more exotic flavours like Blue Cheese & Pear to Maple Syrup, Bacon & Pancake for the more adventurous.

Honestly, picking what flavours to get was by far the most difficult part of the experience. We needed a moment to just settle down to all the vibrant colours around us, before VH finally pulled out her iPhone and looked up all the different flavours online.


"Can we please get 2 Golden Gaytimes?"
"Make that three"
"And 2 Mango and tonka beans?"
"Is that Cheesecake? Oh my god, can I get a Cheesecake as well?"
"Ooooh what's that purple one? Can I get a purple one?"
"Make that two"
"Hey look there's Toasted Marshmallow!"
"Two of those please! And a Finger Bun one"
"Can I also get a Strawberry Bubblegum please?"
"Sorry what's that one there?"
"Lamington"
"Oh can I get that?"
"Whats that you're getting?"
"Lamington."
"OH could I get one as well?"
"What are you guys both getting?"
"Lamington."
"Oh me too!"
"Let's get a Maple Syrup, Bacon and Pancake one..."
"Hmm....yeah okay, let's do it!"

Spoils of war

To be honest, I have no idea what we ended up getting in the end. Not like it really mattered. AL, VH and I just divided our spoils into three boxes and agreed that it'll just have to be like a lucky dip. All the more fun for each of us.


We actually TRIED, to distinguish them by sniffing, but macarons don't really give anything away. All I know so far is that I've bitten into what I thought was Golden Gaytime, half a Lamington, Strawberry Bubblegum, Fig & Blackcurrant, and what I presume to be Chocolate & Salted Caramel.


All in all, we made a great day out of the event. A great big Happy Birthday to Adriano and what a great success the store has been. And yes, I just realised I used "great" three times in two sentences, but I blame that on the sugar coma that I'm under at the moment.



Adrian Zumbo Pâtisserie
Shop 296, Darling Street
Balmain, NSW 2041
Tel: (02) 9810 7318

5 comments:

  1. I managed to meet him and we spoke for like 5 minutes - really nice guy!! Hope it was a good way to lose your Zumbo...ahem.

    Just don't do what I do and go once a month to "see if there's anything new".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow- that's a LOT of macarons! The flavours sound so exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Von: There were three of us, so we ended get up getting around 10~12 macarons each. I think by the end I was suffering from a massive sugar high. Haha.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice coverage of the event & loved the running commentary bit! Was quite a spectacle, huh? :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Simon! Yeah it was. Luckily when we arrived the lines weren't so long anymore, but it was still packed inside nevertheless. People were just all madly picking out different flavours - very much a controlled chaos.

    ReplyDelete