8 November 2010

Macaron Day at Adriano Zumbo, Balmain

The queue outside Adriano Zumbo

It takes something special to motivate me to get up early in the morning, but the promise of 66 flavours of macarons at Adriano Zumbo's Macaron Day has me jumping out of bed bright and early on a Saturday morning. Despite the rain and the cold, the crowds have gathered for the event and though we arrive at 9am, there is already a queue outside the store.

Oh HAI!

An hour later and we're finally just about to step inside the shop and look who else is here! Suze and Phuoc weren't far behind Sir D and I in the queue.

(L-R, T-B) Pinenut gianduja, Pecan danish, Peanut butter and jelly, Pear vanilla macadamia, Passionfruit

The whole window display and the glass display inside the shop is filled with macarons galore! Such pretty colours!

(L-R, T-B) Salted butter popcorn, Salt and vinegar, Salted butter caramel, Salmon

With the macarons priced at only $2 each, it was hard to not go crazy and get all of them. The store was completely decked out in macarons with only a few loaves of bread sitting on the shelves on the wall. It was like entering Willy Wonka's chocolate factory except with macarons instead =D Macaron-tastic!



Some of the flavours that were originally listed on the pamphlet weren't available like beer and nuts, and blood and chocolate, but at least there were some new additions like fairy bread and cookie dough.

Lime and basil creme with raspberries (background), Passionfruit with raspberries (foreground) - $9.00 each

As we moved down the line there were also some giant macarons towards the end which were decorated with raspberries. I spotted one which was decorated similarly to one of my favourite Zumbo creations, the passionfruit tart, and so I had to get that too.

Tobaccoron flavour... hm...

The whole process was quite efficient since you were able to tick the boxes of the macarons that you wanted, and you handed your sheet to the people at the counter and they boxed up your macarons for you. Some of the more interesting flavours on offer included blue cheese, salmon and tobaccoron. None of which I tried.



After waiting for Phuoc and Suze to purchase their macarons we stacked up our boxes and proudly admired our stash. So much sugary goodness!



Why hello my pretties! This was just part of what we bought as well...


We tackled the big macaron first and it may just have been because it was the first one I ate but I loved it! The passionfruit flavour was in both the filling and the shell, and the tart raspberries helped to offset the sweetness of the macaron shells.


In total we got 29 different flavours (only 28 here because I left the rose flavoured one out of the photo by accident). Sir D decided to line them up in rows and columns so here we go...

top row: burnt toast, cereal box, milo, choc water, choc zumbo, finger bun, hamburger
2nd row: lollipop, lychee, choc smoked marshmallow, mocha, salted butter caramel, peanut butter and jelly, raspberry
3rd row: redskin, pancake and maple syrup, salted butter popcorn, salted milk choc caramel, cookie dough, fairy bread, black sesame
bottom row: blackcurrant, blueberry and lavender, citron, coffee, passionfruit, rice pudding, ruby grapefruit


My favourites would have to be redskin, milo and the three salted ones - they all tasted exactly as they should and the flavours were freaking amazing. I loved that burnt toast had a cube of butter in the centre and tasted so much like burnt toast it was unbelievable! Sir D thought hamburger was wrong and that cheese, beetroot and mustard are not suitable fillings for a macaron but I thought it was a rather ingenious idea. Cookie dough had oats in it and reminded me of an Anzac cookie. And the lollipop one had poprocks yay!


After we ate the hamburger one since it was oozing oil and getting soggy from the cheese and beetroot we had 28 left. And since Sir D and I are nerds we realised that 28 is a triangular number so here's a stacked triangle of macarons for you all! (p.s. the rose flavoured macaron is in the 2nd top row on the right)

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie
296 Darling Street
Balmain NSW 2041
Open Monday to Saturday, 8am - 6pm; Sunday, 8am - 4pm


View Larger Map

18 comments:

  1. So wish they had the blood and choc one there. Was real curious to see what it'd be like.

    Loved the effort you went through to make the triangle stack. Was it hard to keep it balanced?

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG! I had no idea they made such crazy flavours! I would've gone for the PB & Jelly, and the Salted Popcorn...I'm sure I could've squishes a few extra ones in as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the macarons pyramid! I am having a virtual macaron overdosed after reading suze and your posts!

    ReplyDelete
  4. it's a pyramid of happiness! mmm so much noms heh did d go into a sugar coma?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ooo I wish I could have gone! $2 is pretty cheap- it would be easy to spend $100'S!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a toothache after seeing all those macarons. Well done on getting all the names - and the pyramid looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the pic of suze and phuoc through the window. You can see the crazed look of sugar anticipation in their eyes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. omggg crazy!!! 29 macarons! did u guys finish it in one go?

    ReplyDelete
  9. So many pretty colours but sooo much su-gaaaarrr!

    ReplyDelete
  10. HAHA such nerds indeed! I think I see something behind the pyramid, how long did it take you guys to get it all standing up perfectly?

    I love how you guys arranged them all beautifully in rows - it's so pretty!

    Redskins was my fav! Loved it so much! I forgot to ask you, how was the chocolate water mac?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh! I wish I was in Melbourne. They looked stunning!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Omg I missed out on fairy bread?!?!??! nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
    hee hee at suze and phuoc photo

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh my everything looks so beautiful and so yummy!! Man I so have to go next year.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love your photos!!

    Yeah, I was scared of the tabaccoroon o_o My friend was game enough to try the salmon, and she said it was quite nice, but only vaguely salmony!

    ReplyDelete
  15. ah! beautiful photos and awesome write up! thats a treasure trove of beautiful macarons, well done getting through them all! I think if i went i'd just come away with a box of redskin macs - i loove redskins!

    ReplyDelete
  16. lol - I love your colour chart of macarons ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Simon - I imagine the blood and chocolate one would taste similar to black pudding + chocolate? That's my guess anyway :)

    Hi MelbaToast - hehe the crazy is what makes it fun! Some of them were just strange though but always worth a try!

    Hi Ellie - hehe I don't think you can ever have too many macarons ;)

    Hi chocolatesuze - macarons = happiness! luckily (or maybe not so luckily?) no sugar coma for me since I didn't eat them all in one go. Sir D was feeling too full at the end of the day to scoff them all down at once ;)

    Hi Gastronomy Gal - haha I know how easily it would have been to keep spending and spending which is why before I arrived on the day I set myself a budget!

    Hi OohLookBel - Thanks! Surely you've eaten your fair share of macarons as well since you're always visiting the patisserie ;)

    Hi Helen - hahaha I think that crazed look may have partly been due to waking up so early and waiting around for an hour to get through the doorway!

    Hi sugarpuffi - oh gosh no I think I would have been on an extreme sugar high for the rest of the night! I spaced mine out over 3 days :)

    Hi mademoiselle delicieuse - haha yes I think that may have been why I enjoyed the salted ones so much, it was a nice change from the toothachingly sweet taste!

    Hi Phuoc - hehe you know I'm a closet nerd =P I put one of the boxes behind the pyramid to keep it stable - Sir D tried to take it away once and then the whole stack just fell down. I have to say those shells are quite hardy though, none of them cracked even when my pyramid collapsed a few times! Choc water was just a normal chocolate filled macaron in the shape of a water droplet, a bit of an anticlimax :(

    Hi JanJan - This was in Sydney :) Although I do hear that Melbourne has its fair share of excellent macarons as well!

    Hi FFichiban - hehe the fairy bread one just looked pretty, unfortunately it tasted quite ordinary :(

    Hi Tambourine - I know I was completely entranced by all the pretty colours! Hopefully next year there'll be even more crazy flavour combos!

    Hi crunchytiger - Thanks! I was going to get the salmon but since we had a budget the bf said no =P haha next time!

    Hi Gianna - Thanks! If the redskin flavour comes out again next year I'm definitely getting more than one - they were awesome!

    Hi Tina - hehe thank you, the colours were just too pretty to not play around with :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. My sister lives in Balmain and she absolutely raves about this place. I'll have to check it out next time I visit her.

    ReplyDelete