Sydney Macaron Hunt

My four-day macaron hunting Sydney has left me with a very bad cough, a blocked nose and a dizzying headache...and half a dozen boxes of macarons from all over Sydney stuck in the fridge. Yes I am terminally obsessed with macarons, but I should be if I want to be serious about it. The Ladurée macarons I brought back from Paris have long been gone and I am waiting for a friend to bring them back in September. Although Sydney's macarons were slightly better than Melbourne, none of them are even close to Parisian macarons, sadly.

My first visit was to Adriano Zumbo was on a Monday afternoon at 3pm, little did I know that he is already a cult-icon in little town Balmain. His café chocolat had to shut early because everything was gone just after lunch hour. His little bakery less than 50 metres away painted a sad grin, his entire goods were basically all gone, what was left behind was a few pieces of rustic breads. I was pretty shocked to be honest, so we promised to come back in the early hours the next day.

Next was Lindt cafe in Sydney's George Street and a second location in Martin Place. They have the best filling in the terms of taste. Although they looked visually appealing with high feet, nice pastel colours and smooth tops, none had the chewiness that of french macarons in Paris. I like their vanilla and dark chocolate best, vanilla because I can taste their signature ice-cream flavour in the ganache, and dark chocolate because Lindt chocs are pretty good.

La Renaissance Café Patisserie is located at The Rocks, a small french bakery, this tiny gem has a colourful selections of macarons. Eventhough texture-wise they were crunchy, their passion fruit with milk chocolate ganache using Valrhona chocolate is refreshing. I can definitely taste the passion fruit.

Finally it's Adriano Zumbo, yes his macarons has a very abstract after-taste. Evethough it might say pistachio or pinenuts, there is definitely a grey area. Meaning he experiments with flavours and I have to give praise for that. He does not just stick to making a pistachio ganache out of a pistachio nut. He is definitely leading the way in Australia's dessert world and Balmain will never be the same again.

Adriano Zumbo
296 Darling Street, Balmain
Café Chocolat
308 Darling Street, Balmain

Lindt
53 Martin Place
259 George Street

La Renaissance Café Patisserie
47 Argyle Street The Rocks Sydney