Hunting the Elusive

Adriano Zumbo is a boutique patisserie and cafe in Balmain, Sydney (think a special and high-class chocolate cafe). It has been making the rounds on the Sydney food blogging scene, and so, this rainy Sunday, I decided to go check it out, bringing along my Minolta 50mm 2.8 macro lens in its first trip out of the house. (Being as this is an aesthetics blog and not a food blog, timeliness of reportage is irrelevant). Taking the bus 442 from Stand B, York Street, behind the Queen Victoria Building, I proceeded to the corner of Darling Street and Mort Street in Balmain. Upon disembarkment, I could already see the Adriano Zumbo sign.

Turns out there are two locations for Adriano Zumbo. The one I first saw was for the patisserie, which sells, in addition to cakes and macaroons and all things nice, quiches and bread. I made my way up the street just a little to get to the cafe, which is situated in a little courtyard of sorts.

A red chandelier inside the cafe, with reflections of the courtyard:

At this point, the overcast cumuli had begun unloading, and this steadily turned into a shower as my stay at the cafe prolonged. Additionally, visitors are well-advised to book a table in advance, as the cafe is very popular. I had just rocked up, singly, and took a table outside. A shade umbrella provided some respite from the rain, though my water-resistant bags were called upon to function as advertised.

This being a reconnaissance (i.e.: the first time I’ve been to a place, a trial run to eliminate logistic difficulties in the future), I thought I’d try just a small range of food.

So I ordered two the Earl Grey + Chocolate macaroons. They have a distinctive Earl Grey tea flavour, and as you can see, include some real tea leaves. As to be expected from macaroons, they are very sweet.

I also ordered their dessert set ‘Paris: La Vie en Rose’. It arrived with amazing presentation, gilded by rose petals.

I can’t quite remember what the menu said it was, but it included strawberries, pink (rose flavoured) macarons, a creme brulee at the bottom of the cup, lychee, and I think, frozen raspberry sorbet. The drink was rather less sweet, and rather coconutty. I forgot what was in it.

Ordering the set also yields a drink. In this case, I chose the Barbados Tea.

The key here is to be open-minded in what you order. My favourite flavours are chocolate and strawberry, and I don’t normally get stuff with coconut and rose-water flavours, but these diverse ingredients and textures are blended in quite an artful way, providing complex layers of flavours. Definitely get one of the “sets” which cost around 15 AUD.

After the cafe, I went back to the patisserie to check out the desserts over there. Both the cafe and the patisserie have their own selection of food, though you can buy something from the patisserie and bring it to the cafe to eat.

I bought me a passion fruit tart (first picture) and a mogador (fourth picture) to bring home. They both survived the journey.

Whoa giant macaroon.

Anyway, a fairly short photo post, though I may be revisiting this place in the near future. The macro lens turned out great results: I took 16 photos in total, and only one was discarded due to blurrage, while another two were just repeats of the Earl Grey macaroon. To compare the failure rate, I took 818 photos at the Natsu-Matsuri, and discarded around 95% in the final edit. Of course, we have to take into account that the Natsu-Matsuri was a much more demanding environment to shoot in (a lot of movement and stuff). Still, the macro lens is very well-suited for shooting food.