The new Zumbo chocolate café is due to open 11 October, according to the signs in the cake shop window. Can’t hardly wait!In the meantime, here’s a ‘Boom!’. Not quite ‘da bomb’, but an explosive mix of meringue and white chocolate crust, passionfruit mousse, and rhubarb and strawberry jelly. I love these fruit-infused creations.
The weather this weekend was a perfect taste of summer (even though it’s spring). So perfect that we caught the ferry to Circular Quay and played at being tourists (‘ooh look, there’s the Bridge, take a photo of me in front of it! Ooh look, there’s the opera house, take a photo of me in front of it! Ooh look, there’s a seagull. Eeewww!’). Also paid a visit to La Renaissance patisserie in Argyle St in the Rocks. The cakes looked a bit traditional compared to Zumbo’s, but the macaron flavours included rose, vanilla, jasmine and chocolate. Here are the rose and jasmine.
The rose was pleasantly rose-scented, but the buttercream filling was strangely stiff. The Jasmine did not really have any flavour except of eggwhites and sugar, and the macaron itself was a bit hard. Pretty, but no cigar… However, I highly recommend Nougat Limar (stall at the Rocks Market), a soft, creamy nougat chock full of cherry, cranberry and pistachio.
The Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers/City of Sydney markets are a new food and produce market on the local food scene. The markets are held 10am-3pm every Friday in the forecourt of St Mary’s Cathedral. I would have visited sooner, but last Friday was the first Friday since the markets started that wasn’t windy, rainy, squally and stormy.
So, I popped along at lunch time and who should be there but the sweet chocolatesuze, at her Biscuit Tree stall.
I got a selection of goodies, and I tell you what, it’s all I can do to not eat them all at once. The shortbread is incredibly buttery (gorgeous!), and the biscotti are wafer thin, crisp and very classy. Race you there next week!
Just try to pronounce ‘sfogliadelle’ through a mouthful of the said pastry. Suh-fog-leeah-dell-a. It’s not that hard to say, but it’s pretty hard to chew. Sfogliadelle is a pastry that looks like a clamshell, and it’s made from pasta sheets, which gives it some ‘tooth’ (just be careful not to break a molar on it). The filling is orangey custard with bits of orange peel. I’m not a fan of citrus, so for me, I’d stick with the zuccerati for now.
And to prove that I am happy to play the field when it comes to desserts, here is one of my favorite weekend treats. It is a zuccerati from Bertoni Casalinga (Balmain), which is basically an Italian donut filled with either ricotta or custard. Deliziosa Zuccerati (sorry, I can’t do the accent).
Bertoni Casalinga is just across the road from Adriano Zumbo, but a world away when it comes to coffee culture and noisy bustle. Bertoni has customers at a big wooden table inside and spilling onto the footpath outside, on milk crates .
The food is also different, with lots of mama’s homemade meatballs, pasta, and a fantastic orzo salad.
Sitting on the counter today were Italian donuts, just like ‘normal’ ones, but double the size and with no hole. Had one split, spread with Nutella and toasted. Results below.
The weather this weekend was a perfect taste of summer (even though it’s spring). So perfect that we caught the ferry to Circular Quay and played at being tourists (‘ooh look, there’s the Bridge, take a photo of me in front of it! Ooh look, there’s the opera house, take a photo of me in front of it! Ooh look, there’s a seagull. Eeewww!’). 
The rose was pleasantly rose-scented, but the buttercream filling was strangely stiff. The Jasmine did not really have any flavour except of eggwhites and sugar, and the macaron itself was a bit hard. Pretty, but no cigar… However, I highly recommend Nougat Limar (stall at the Rocks Market), a soft, creamy nougat chock full of cherry, cranberry and pistachio.
