Thanks to Adriano Zumbo and Masterchef, the nation has gone macaron crazy. Continuing from what he started last year, Adriano Zumbo celebrates his birthday by baking up a frenzy of macarons. Chocolatesuze and I braved the horrendous rain and waited an hour for some macarons. We saw a familiar face further up the queue. I must admit I didn’t get to go on the first day last year but was fortunate enough to catch all the action the next day. All the macarons that were left over were placed in boxes in a van outside the shop; we had no idea what macarons flavours were left at that time so got what was recommended.
This year seemed to be a bit more organised, pamphlets were handed out as we waited in line; this way we got to know what flavours were on offer, tick the flavours we would like to purchase so we could hand the list to the staff so they could organise our box of macaron goodies for us without much hassle.
The macarons were laid spread out underneath the glass cabinet and what a sight it was! So many pretty colours and so many macarons. There had to be tens of thousands of macarons here.
There were pre-pack macaron boxes available as well which contained 12 different macaron flavours. Feeling a little inspired Willy Wonka, he apparently placed 20 golden macarons inside these boxes and would be giving 5 lucky people a chance to spend a day in the Zumbo Lab. It would have sucked for the other 15 people to be told they missed out.
What are Zumbo macarons without the weird flavours? I didn’t try all of them, the craziest would have been the fish and chips one but it wasn’t there when we placed our order. Apparently it was deep fried with a super crispy batter. I wonder if it tasted anything of fish. Speaking of fish, there was salmon macaron to be had as well, which looked like it had a sprinkle of pepper on its shell. As I was being served, one of the staff took a bite into the hamburger macaron and commented that it really tasted of hamburgers, from what I can see, there was cheese and tomato sauce in it. Another strange flavour was the tabaccoroon, shaped like a cigar with silver powder, I wonder if it really tasted of tobacco.
Amongst all the different macaron flavours, Zumbo and his team manage to knock up 3 flavours of jumbo size macarons (all of which had fresh raspberries in them); these flavours were rose, passionfruit and lime and basil. I got the passionfruit one for Ant and he enjoyed it a lot. A very light passionfruit cream filled these pretty macaron shells.
I settled with 20 macarons I wanted beer and nuts but it wasn’t available and I don’t know if it surfaced during the day though.
Here’s what I got and briefly what I thought about them:
Burnt toast – Such an amazing creation! This macaron was definitely what it was set out to be. It may have looked like an innocent macaron but once you bite into it, a darkish “burnt” filling reveals itself with a little nob of butter. Pure genius!
Cereal box – Made of crushed up cereals (I think it was cornflakes), it was kinda like eating cereal.
Chocolate banana – Dense chocolate ganache, couldn’t taste the banana though.
Chocolate smoked marshmallow – Here I was thinking the filling would be light and fluffy (as a marshamallow should be) but it wasn’t at all; it was kinda powdery and reminded me of red bean paste.
Choc Zumbo – You’d think that if Zumbo was to name a macaron after him that it would be something crazy right? So my initial thought was that the shells were coated with poprocks and that there would be more poprocks inside, unfortunately I was disappointed. The “poprocks” was crushed up toffee praline and I still don’t know what the filling was. If anyone has an idea could they please tell me what it is.
Cookie dough – My first thought was that it reminded me of an Anzac biscuit. Not too sweet, the filling was slightly chewy.
Fingerbun – Appearance of a finger bun with a coconut filling and pieces of raisins in it. It was ok.
Kalamata olive with candy – Ant and I are both olive lovers and had the same reaction as we bit into the macaron, it was an expression of “This is slightly odd..” The fact that it tasted like an olive was amusing. The candy provided some sweetness to this macaron.
Lamington – Exactly what I expected! This macaron tasted like a lamington! The chocolate icing was similar to how a lamington would taste like when first dipped into chocolate icing; you know, that liquid chocolate feeling.
Lollypops – What flavour could one expect from “lollypop”? A pretty blue macaron was placed on a lollypop stick and had poprocks in the ganache filling. Too bad it didn’t pop as much as I wanted it to; it was still fun regardless.
Lychee – Super sweet! I enjoyed the lychee jelly centre but other than that it was so sweet.
Peanut butter and jelly – Shared this with my sister and I’m glad that I did otherwise it would have been too gluggy due to the thick layer of peanut butter, a small piece of jelly provided something to cut through the peanut butter but I wished there was more of it though.
Pear, vanilla and macadamia – Sweet and very flavoursome. First thoughts was that I could taste the pear and vanilla. YUM!
Pecan danish – A piece of pecan hides amongst the sweet custard-like filling. This macaron has a very nutty flavour to it and reminds me of the sweet aromas you would experience in a patisserie (think almond crossiants).
Redskins – Possibly my favourite macaron of all time! My first bite transported me back to the primary school days. The texture of the filling was chewy and tasted extremely like redskins. I felt like a kid again.
Salted butter caramel – Once again, you can’t go wrong with salted caramel. So uber good!
Salted butter popcorn – Another pass favourite. The shells are coated with crushed popcorn and are filled with a slightly salty buttercream. I purchased 4 of these knowing that they’ll be greatly devoured.
The flavours that were on offer for the day were:
Almond
Black garlic
Black sesame
Blackcurrent
Blood and chocolate
Blue cheese
Blueberry lavender
Burnt toast
Cereal box
Chestnut passionfruit
Cherry azuki bean
Choc banana
Choc mayonnaise
Choc salt and vinegar
Choc smoked marshmallow
Choc water
Choc Zumbo
Chocolate
Citron
Coconut
Coffee
Cookie dough
Cucumber mint yoghurt
Fairy bread
Fingerbun
Fish and chips
Hamburge
Hazelnut
Kalamata olive with candy
Lamington
Lemon verbena and mint
Liquorice
Lollypops
Lychee
Mandarin
Milo
Mocha
Negroni
Pandan
Pancake and maple syrup
Passionfruit
Peanut butter and jelly
Pear vanilla and macadamia
Pecan Danish
Pineapple and coconut
Pinenut gianduja
Pistachio
Raspberry
Redskins
Rice pudding
Rose
Ruby Grapefruit
Salmon
Salt and vinegar
Salted butter caramel
Salted butter popcorn
Salted milk choc caramel
Sichuan pepper
Spelt
Sticky date pudding
Strawberry bubblegum
Tabaccoroon
Toothpaste
Vanilla
Vegemite Sourdough
Yoghurt chilli tangerine
thanks so much for driving me dude! it was such an awesome day and my stomach is very happy but my shoes are still sodden boo
whoah it’s a mac attack! the redskin one sounded awesome and yum burnt toast! butter cubes are my friend 🙂
I tried the fish and chip one! It was surprisingly good – salty and deep fried but also sweet. Plus I’m sure there was fish inside!
So much sugar dedication! Serious hats off to you through rain and queueing for these beauties.
Pecan danish sounds so good, I wish I got that one as well! It was a fun day and the macarons were definitely worth the hour long wait I think 🙂
I liked hearing your ideas on each of the macrons that you tried…I feel like I’ve not really missed out after all. Was the burnt toast strange to eat…after all, when most of burn a piece of toast we chuck it in the bin and start again?
Loved the “Golden Macaron” promotion, concept familiar yet very excitingly current at the time & for the event.
All mac-ed out my favourite flavour from our choices was Milo & if anyway is wondering if Strawberry Bubblegum tasted like bubblegum?…witnessing the facial expressions after the first bite…it sure did!
What you thought of the macarons you didn’t try i.e. fish & chip and tobaccoron were about right.
I didn’t get the beer and nut one at the time just before you left so maybe it wasn’t there at all? Who knows…
A trooper you are coming all that way and waiting in the massive queue!
I just ended up baking cookies in my pj’s =D
Phuoc you should have told me you’d be in the area! I was walking my dogs Saturday morning and we saw the crowds – had I know you were there I would have gone to say HI and let you meet my dogs!
Awesome! thanks for such an exhaustive article, God I din’t know about this macaroon day thing….. well, thx to you I ‘ll put it on next year calendar and I’ll make sure to have a tabaccoroon!!!!
D.
good on you for braving the rain! excellent haul, im still very curious to try savory macarons – especially the “odd”olive variety! would have loved to try the redskin flavour too! yum!
You do well settling with only 20! Such restraint haha I would have been there for days just deciding. So upset I didnt make it this year but by the looks of the flavours I wont miss next year 🙂
Woah that’s some serious macaron tasting you guys did! The macaron flavours remind me of jelly belly flavours!
Hey! I bought 62 flavours (I think in total were 66). I think you may have forgotten ‘Cotton Candy’. It’s sort of a ‘hidden’ flavour. If you look at the list, it doesn’t show up there, but it does on the pre-set packages. 🙂
Macarons in all shapes and forms are worth braving any rain for! I’ve gotten hooked on them while living in London (Pierre Herme is the BEST IN THE WORLD) but I’m glad there are the likes of Zumbo back home so I can still get my fix when I move back 😉
Whoa, what an epic macaron adventure! Such interesting flavours he has there. Fish and chips?? Cool. Me thinks a trip to Sydney needs to be planned around Macaron Day 2011 🙂 🙂
I hope to get there next year. Seriously amazing flavours, some strange, but amazing all the same.
you are in heaven now arnt you?
peach danish <3
WOW! What a crazy and creative list of flavours.. absolutely awesome. I wonder how many macarons they sold that day?!?!
Suze: Awesome day indeed..
Helen: Hehe.. everything is so much better with butter.. I am forever dreaming about the redskin mac!
Gemma: That is so odd.. I’m bummed that I missed out!
Mademoiselle delicieuse: It was well worth it, I’m surprised I didn’t have to wait that long for it…
Jacq: I think so too.. That’s my monthly intake of macs in one day I think!
Melba Toast: Burnt toast was actually enjoyable, it wasn’t an off-putting burnt taste I guess… I think it was just pretty cool that it was made to be what it actually is.
S.P.T: I loved the “golden mac” promotion too, gave a sense of Willy Wonka excitement 😀
Simon: Beer and nut would have been interesting as Ant had a beer one last year and said it was surprisingly pleasant.
Angie: Thanks! It wasn’t as massive as I imagined it to me. In my opinion, the organisation made it flow smoothly.
Trissa: Aww… next time! Did you get any yourself?
Dario: Not a problem!
Gianna: Savoury macs seem so wrong hey? But who is one to question Zumbo??
Nic: Well I had to restrain myself because I knew that I’ll be the only one eating this box (with some help from my bf)
Trisha: Ooo.. I haven’t had jelly bellys in ages!
Patrick: Oic.. I still can’t see it on the pre-packaged list. How was it?
Catty: I think I’d have Pierre over Zumbo any day though.. But yes, when you aren’t fortunate enough to get Pierre’s macs, Zumbo does a pretty good job as well 😀
Emma: I think so too! 😀
Sara: With Zumbo involved, you can expect nothing out of the ordinary..
Richard: Heheh YES! I with I could have shared it with you guys.
Vivian: Umm I’m pretty sure it was pecan danish 😀
Ladybird: I think he would sell out with most of the popular flavours; I can’t say that would be the same case with flavours such as tabacoron, salmon, toothpaste etc
Woah that’s some serious macaron tasting you guys did! The macaron flavours remind me of jelly belly flavours!
They do don’t they?
The Chocozumbo Macaron contains milk, barbecued corn puree, dark couverture chocolate, white couverture chocolate, unsalted butter, lightly salted corn kernels and corn ships 🙂
Antilily: Thanks 🙂