Monday, November 8, 2010

Zumbo's Macaron Day and 7-11 Day. The best weekend ever. Part one.

If I had my own way, I’d easily sleep in til 10am, 11am, even 12pm every day. Unfortunately The Boy likes to rise at 7am. It’s a trying fact in our relationship and something that we are currently working through. Lucky for me, he is away at the moment. And shamefully, this means that he missed me dragging my tired ass out of bed at 6am this Saturday in search of macarons. I would have received an absolute serving from him “What! You never get out of bed that early for me! Stop wasting the day!”.

Saturday, the 6th November is Macaron Day. The ridiculously talented Adriano Zumbo, of Zumbo patisserie pulls together 60 plus macaron variations each year on this day (also known as his birthday). And having worked last year on Macaron Day, this year I was getting up early and dragging Miss Moon to Balmain with me to get my macaron on!

The day started with a 6am alarm. Stumbling around my empty, dark apartment, tripping over coffee tables, etc. Then off to pick up Miss Moon via White Horse Coffee, Sutherland. Oh there is nothing better than good coffee and very attractive boys at 7am to make you feel perky about the day ahead. Honestly, I don’t care if the attractive cashier and even more attractive barista flirt with all the girls that come in for coffee. And I don’t even care that attractiveness and subtle flirting abilities are prerequisites when applying for a job at White Horse, just so long as they make me feel like the prettiest girl to ever walk into their shop.. ok, I’m getting distracted now. Sorry. But seriously. Go to White Horse. Just for attractive men. Oh, and coffee.

With coffee in hand, we were off to Balmain in the pouring rain. It was absolutely bucketing! Streets were flooding, drain pipes were exploding. Horrific weather. But we rocked up to Zumbo’s just after 8am and in line we waited for approximately 1 and a half hours.

People were coming out of the shop with boxes upon boxes of macarons! Once inside, one of staff members told us that someone had just spent $280 - At 2 bucks each, that’s 140 macarons! Made my measly 15 macarons seen pointless. But it wasn’t pointless. It was amazing! Between myself and Miss Moon we tried around 30 flavours. Below is the full list – highlighted in red are the ones that we tried.
(Insides of the Hamburger macaron)

Top marks go to the yoghurt, chilli and tangerine. Just the right amount of chilli and a hint of yoghurt which really made the citrus flavour pop. Shear brilliance in a macaron.


Unfortunately, at 9.30am, some flavours were still MIA. I was more than willing to buy a whole box full of Beer and Nuts macarons, but “they haven’t arrived yet”. Also missing were fish and chips, fairy bread and black garlic. A little disappointing considering the shop had been open since 7am.

Macaron Day 2010 
Almond
Beer and nuts
Black garlic
Black Sesame
Blackcurrant
Blood and chocolate
Blue cheese - all the savoury lovers, put your hands up! This is a winner for the cheese lovers out there.
Blueberry Lavender - only for fans of lavender. Is anyone not a fan? Very delicate and sweet. 
Burnt Toast
Cereal box
Chestnut Passionfruit
Cherry adzuki bean
Choc Banana
Choc Mayonnaise - this was Miss Moon's choice. Mayonnaise belongs on a sandwich. That is all.
Choc Salt and Vinegar
Choc Smoked Marshmallow
Choc Water (H2O) - chocolate, with a refreshing twist. Intriguing. 
Choc Zumbo
Chocolate
Citron
Coconut
Coffee
Cookie Dough - cookie dough centre was more of an 'Anzac biscuit' dough. I prefer choc chip dough, personally.
Cucumber mint yoghurt
Fairy Bread
Fingerbun
Fish and chips
Hamburger - real beetroot and cheese. Bit of mustard tang. Messy.
Hazelnut
Kalamata Olive with Candy
Lamington
Lemon Verbena + Mint
Liquorice
Lollipops - like a vanilla and strawberry chuppa chup. Winner.
Lychee - filled with a small bit of lychee jelly.
Mandarin
Milo
Mocha
Negroni
Pandan
Pancake and maple syrup
Passionfruit
Peanut butter and jelly - jelly was a little bit gritty. But peanut butter in a macaron is amazing!
Pear Vanilla Macadamia
Pecan Danish
Pineapple + Coconut - tasted like a splice ice cream! I will go back for this one again, and again, and again..
Pinenut Gianduja
Pistachio
Raspberry
Redskins
Rice pudding
Rose
Ruby Grapefruit
Salmon - holy shit! Props to Zumbo for recreating salmon in a dessert! Spot on! One small problem. Creamy, buttery salmon makes me gag. Terrible, terrible, terrible. 
Salt and Vinegar - all the salt and vinegar was Miss Moon's choice. Not a fan. That's just me. Sorry.
Salted Butter Caramel
Salted Butter Popcorn - creamy, creamy butter cream filling. Yum. 
Salted milk choc caramel
Sichuan pepper
Spelt
Sticky Date
Strawberry Bubblegum
Tabaccoroon
Toothpaste - tasted like spearmint. I like spearmint. 
Vanilla
Vegemite Sourdough - with the buttercream filling, this tasted EXACTLY like a vegemite sammie on white bread!
Yoghurt Chilli Tangerine - perfection. Absolute perfection. 


 White Horse Coffee

2/137 Flora St
Sutherland NSW 2232
0433 411 114


Adriano Zumbo Patisserie

296 Darling St, Balmain NSW

(02) 9810 7318

3 comments:

  1. I recommend baroque for yummier less gag worthy flavours... they are to die for!! and I like them better than the zumbo macarons!

    my recommendations for the baroque macaron flavours...

    Salted caramel
    Jasmine white tea
    Rose water

    yum yum yum YUM YUM!!

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  2. bahahaha i love you description of the salmon lols that cracked me up! salted popcorn and salted caramel were def my favs mmm butter

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  3. Well done on your purchases! And I wonder where the $280 macaron purchaser was going with them! :P

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