Australia: Macaron Day

Saturday, Nov. 6:  This morning the streets were literally flooding with rain.  We hung out until it dried up a bit and then went to Room 10 where we ate yummy sandwiches and free banana blueberry smoothies while talking about skydiving. 

Soon we walked though the beautiful botanic gardens to Sydney Harbour.  There was a lot of commotion around the Opera House and we found out they were setting up for the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awards which would be held Sunday night.  Steph and I decided we would return here to witness this grand event.  We are so lucky we came this week!

We ventured through the Rocks market where I bought tea and a didgeridoo and boomerang made by aboriginals.  I cannot wait to learn how to play the didgeridoo! 

Didgeridoo

Ferry to Balmain

Then, following Room 10's suggestion, we caught the ferry to Balmain.  We had amazing views of the Sydney Harbour from the ferry.  Balmain is a cute, artsy suburb peninsula where we found Adriano Zumbo patisserie.  Zumbo is renowned for his creative genius when it comes to cakes, pastries, and macarons.  He has been featured on Australia's Masterchef TV show!!  We just happened to come on his birthday and the famous macaron day!  Totally serendipitous.  With unusual flavours such as Salted Butter Popcorn, Toothpaste, Vegemite Sourdough, Beer and Nuts, Blue Cheese and Burnt Toast, making a choice was no easy task. Flyers listing the various flavours were handed out so people had ample time to make a choice before stepping into the patisserie which was cleared of the usual desserts to make way for the mountains of macarons. 

We split ten different flavours and slowly indulged in them at a nearby cafe.  Our list in favourite order is:  Salted milk chocolate caramel, peanut butter and jelly, milo, coconut, yogurt chilli tangerine, blood and chocolate, cucumber mint yoghurt, burnt toast, strawberry bubblegum, and salmon. 

Adriano Zumbo Macarons

We got the ferry back and walked to the Sydney Centrepoint Tower.  We were hoping to go up to the bar at the top an because we heard there are spectacular views.  However although we were wearing nice dresses, the snobs wouldn't let us up because we were wearing flipflops.  Not cool.  So we decided to leave and chill at O'Malley's Irish Pub which was fun.