OH HAI! Yes it’s that time of year again folks! It was Adriano Zumbo’s birthday on Nov 6th and, like last year, all desserts at the patisserie (296 Darling St, Balmain) were macarons!


There were 66 flavours of macarons (macarons with ONE o!) and luckily there were heaps of leaflets being handed out on the day so we could peruse the macaron menu and mark off what we wanted to order


The awesome Phuoc drove me bright and early to Balmain in the crazy pouring rain. We stopped by the factory/cafe (114 Terry St, Rozelle) first so I could get a squizz at the new digs but left soon after realising they didn’t have the full range of macarons there.


We managed to step into every single puddle possible while crossing the street to be faced with this queue. The shop had been open since 7.30am and after spotting Jacq and Dan in the queue we waited about an hour before reaching the promised land of macarons. There were camera crews aplenty and an expectant buzz in the air as the queue inched forwards before…


BABIES! SWEET PRECIOUS BABIES!


MORE BABIES! Just as we were about to enter the promised land we spot Sook who had bought some of the pre-packed assorted boxes in hopes of securing the ‘Golden Macaron’ to win a day in the Zumbo Lab. And the lucky bugger found TWO!

There were some pretty crazy flavours available- blood & chocolate, salmon and toothpaste were some of the weirder ones. Sadly the fish and chips macaron hadn’t arrived yet when we arrived but I’m sure other bloggers will write about em.


The macs were in alphabetical order and displayed in much prettier plastic cases. Ordering the macarons was a pretty pain-free experience compared to last year, all we had to do was hand over our leaflet with our selections and we were in and out within 5mins.


Lollipop macs aplenty


Just as we were finishing up our order a huge tray of big macarons appear. BIG MACS! How could we NOT have one!? I skipped the green mac cos I have issues with basil that’s not combined with cheese, the pink cos I have issues with rose that is in a form other than a flower and gleefully ordered the beyootiful passionfruit and raspberry macaron.


[Image from Gourmantic] We left the land of happiness to be greeted by this cute lil doggy hehehe Helen spotted this pic over at Gourmantic ahahaha this pic cracks me up so much! I was reaching into my bag for my camera and just as I got it out he sat back down!


28 macarons = my box of happiness 😀


Nom! Hello new twitter avatar…


So bright! So vivid!


Of course as soon as I saw the salted butter popcorn macaron I knew I had to stock up. I’m kinda wishing I bought more…


Other flavours that I got l-r: popcorn, salt & vinegar, redskins, cereal box, burnt toast, hamburger, cookie dough, salted butter caramel, milo, peanut butter & jelly, pistachio. Super ♥ for the redskins mac! Zomg it was so awesome and was sad I didn’t get more than one of those babies! Wasn’t a huge fan of the salt & vinegar cos I wanted more of a salt flavour instead of being hit by a truckload of vinegar. The pb&j was tasty with the jelly cube in the centre nice and squishy tho I think a better combo would be pb+choc.


Hello innards shot! Check out that knob of butter on the burnt toast mac oh yes it was deeeelicious. The hamburger was weird but I think I preferred it more with the tiny sliver of beetroot than the pickle in last year’s cheeseburger mac. Next year I’m totes hoping there’s gonna be a cornflakes macaron!


Home of tasty macarons

There are not too many cakes that I would line up for but Haberfield’s Pasticceria Papa’s ricotta cheesecake is definitely one of them. Trawls thru mr google have been unsuccessful in procuring the recipe to recreate the sensational cheesecake. UNTIL NOW. I found this recipe from Gourmet Recipes who adapted it from a Donna Hay recipe and while this cheesecake doesn’t have the bready crust, the innards are soooo light and fluffy you’ll have to restrain yourself from eating the whole thing! I halved the recipe because I only had 1 tub of ricotta at home but if you’ve got the extra ricotta definitely make the whole cake! Also the recipe originally calls for 1 Tbsp of lemon rind but I have issues with lemon rind so I took it out.

Ingredients for HALF the recipe:
175g ricotta (Tamar Valley is a decent ricotta and less watery than the Perfecto brand)
250g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160°C. Beat the ricotta and cream cheese for 5–6 minutes or until smooth.

Add the sugar and the vanilla extract and beat for 3–4 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Pour mixture into a lightly greased 22cm-round tin lined on the base and sides with non-stick baking paper. Place into a deep baking dish and pour in enough hot water to come half way up the sides of the tin. Bake for 45mins and then turn off the oven and leave the cake for another 15minutes (will help to stop the top cracking) Note: Cos I used half the recipe obviously 22cm tin would be too large so I used mini tins.

Mah uncracked baby! I had to foil my tins cos they were springform tins. If you do use springform tins make sure you use at least 4 layers of foil to stop the water from coming in from the bottom! Remove cheesecake from pan of water and allow to cool in the tin. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before attempting to remove from tin.

So purdy

This is what happens when you don’t line the tin with baking paper! It WILL stick and be imposs to take off the bottom!

Also this is what happens when the piece of material you buy for $2 turns out to not be big enough to fill the screen when you take the photo haha

Mmm noms 😀 Hope this crazy weather clears up soon so you guys have an awesome weekend!

Edit: CLOSED

I had heard good things about Bentley (320 Crown Street, Surry Hills). A sexy new interior fitout, food with crazy awesome presentations and best of all a dessert degustation menu ($40). We were here to experience desserts by the one and only Lemonpi who was finishing up her run at Bentley before jetting off on holidays. Four courses of lip smacking dessert deliciousness had been planned for a late birthday pressie for Billy and so we had been eagerly waiting all month for desserts. The night started off great. But. Yes there is a but… Rage has been dulled a tad thanks to some alcoholic beverages and the passage of time on my leaky memory.

After some dinner snacks at Mizuya, our group of four was led to our table. Napkins were placed with a flourish on our laps, water poured immediately and a platter of thickly sliced bread with olive oil lands on our table. We stare at the bread uneasily and as a waitress floats by we tell her we are here for dessert. “No worries” she replies with a smile, “would you still like the bread?” We decline as we are eager to see Y’s dessert creations but 2mins later a waiter zooms to our table and says, “I understand you’re here for dessert only? It’s just that this table was sold as a full three-course meal.” He sounds incredibly peeved and Billy replies, “we made a booking for the dessert degustation menu online.” The waiter shakes his head, “we have no knowledge of this.” Bewildered we look at each other and before we can say anything he sniffs and says, “whatever, you’re here now” and walks away. And then the slow, burning onset of rage as he studiously avoids us for the next 15minutes. It is almost laughable when our wine menu gets plucked from our table and deposited on the table next to us before we’ve placed our drinks order. Finally just as we were debating on walking out, our original waitress returns to our table of isolation. She is lovely and polite, a stark contrast to the unpleasantness of the previous waiter. Gah. Had the waiter asked, we would have gladly moved to the bar seating!

But anyways. Enough talk. Time for pics.

First off the dessert blocks is the Caramelised pineapple with barley cream and beer sorbet. Still seething from waiter rage I got about halfway thru this dessert before anything registered. A definite standout was the nubbins of sweet dehydrated pineapple hidden beneath the perfect creamy quenelle. I could totally eat bowlfuls of the stuff! Mmm fruit in compacted form.

A vision of white is placed before us, behold the Milk cake with magnolia ice cream and white chocolate. Thanks to the wonders of liquid nitrogen, a crisp white globe sits atop a bar of spongey milk cake. The meringue-like ball is stabbed, and the remnants of my anger disappears as the shards dissolve on my tongue, sugar replacing bitter thoughts.

Frozen cheesecake with mango and blueberry arrives with a cloud of lime foam so delicate and ethereal, the blueberry powder a striking sight to see. A dollop of slightly tart blueberry compote is balanced with the sweetness of the mango slices fanned beneath the smooth quenelle of cream cheese. The scatter of buttery biscuit crumbs eases my mind and the plate is soon scraped clean.

I had been looking forward to the last dessert, the Chocolate sponge with cherry sorbet and coconut and it does not disappoint. The chocolate sponge is airy and light as a feather, and the combination of the sweet cherry sorbet, pool of dark chocolate ganache and the coconut tuille reminds me of a deconstructed version of a Cherry Ripe. The cap of toffee is fun to crunch into until it decides it doesn’t want to part with my teeth.

The ensuring sugar rush of the night has brought the smiles back on our dials and while we try to peek into the kitchen on the way to the bathroom, we fail to spy Lemonpi but we promise ourselves that one day we will meet the master of desserts. For now we will continue to stalk you online Y!

Yarr me hearties! No it’s not talk like a pirate day but a sexy pirate greeted us at the entrance of Mizuya (Basement level, 614 George Street, Sydney) and it was only till we got a lil closer that we saw she had blood flowing from her eyes… We were here to partake in Mizuya’s selection of snack sized treats, a mini dinner before a dessert degustation later on (post to come later).


Yes the Halloween craze had hit and along with pirates serving us that night there were also zombies, masked men, cat ears and witches galore.


Billy manages to order the pinkest, girliest drink off the menu heh happy (belated) birthday dude!


Like Wagaya, Mizuya booths have touch screens installed and food comes out crazy fast


I decided to hold off on the deep fried cheese, having already consumed my daily allotment of dairy for the day (curse you lactose hating intestines!) but there’s nothing stopping me from ordering the Crispy Salmon Skin ($4.80) which arrives curiously curled and disappears within seconds as we munch on the salty goodness that is deep fried omega 3.


The Spider Roll ($13.80) is an impressive sight, perfectly cut segments of sushi with fried soft shell crab legs sticking out askew.


The Cheese Potato Mochi ($5.80) was less memorable, tasting more of a potato pattie with slighty cheesey innards.


I haven’t done a knife shot in a while so this one is for you Rush!


The Eggplant with Sweet Miso ($7.80) aka mega miso marvoulessness has Helen in raptures- “it’s so smooth! It’s perfect! My precioussss…”


A plate of Crispy Chicken Skin ($3.80) was ordered as soon as the salmon skin had disappeared and after hoeing into the plate and making a good dent I start feeling queasy and had the urge to eat greenery oh yes I was defeated by the chicken skin! These innocent looking shavings of deep fried cholesterol laden nubbins saw the downfall of chocolatesuze!


Wagyu Beef and Garlic Fried Rice ($12.80) is a welcome stomach liner from the chicken skin but alas the wagyu beef is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sure they were juicy morsels of tender meat but really it was not the best dish for wagyu to be the star in.


The Simmered Beef Cheek ($11.80), however was freaking awesome. Why hello incredibly marbled, gelatinous, soft, tender meat! Next time I’m totes ordering this and not sharing with anyone.


The restaurant was decked out in pumpkins, sheeted ghosts and cobwebs and we roll ourselves down the street onto our dessert destination…