I know, I know. If you read lots of Sydney food blogs you've already read something like this a million times. I don't blame you if you close the window right now! I wasn't even sure if I would bother posting about this, since all the other wonderful food bloggers have already done such a fabulous job reviewing Adriano Zumbo's new collection,
40 Days & Nights in Paris. But I feel compelled to gush about it, just a little. I had yet to experienced anything Zumbo-related until I joined a travelling party of bloggers (organised by the fantastic Reem, thank you so much!) to check out the new collection. All I can say is:
I am converted.
Where's Zumbo?We arrive at the cafe to find a ridiculous amount of desserts laid out just for us. Ohhh it's days like these that I want to give my little blog a hug! Thanks to Reem's organising with the lovely Rachael, they have very kindly given us free reign of the inside seating area of the small cafe and provided us with 4 of every dessert from the new collection for us to photograph, pick, purchase and polish off as we please.
Hello pretties!I am pleased to realise I tried a lot of the things in the above photo! I was very nervous about what I would/wouldn't be able to eat because of my nut allergy, but I decided to be a little risky and try some things that may have had almond meal in them. I didn't have any sort of reaction at all, so either I was very lucky or I'm not really that allergic! Anyway I will spare you the gory details. Here is a quick summary.
What I got to taste:I sampled the first three desserts shown below in the cafe. The first,
'6/11/81', was mind-blowingly good. The combination of all those different flavours. It was intense but it worked so well. And OMG the crunchy coconut bits. The man knows what he's doing.
'6/11/81' - Milk passion caramel mousse, lime crème, passionfruit marshmallow, coconut crunch & brownie
The rice brulee tart was so pretty, it even tasted pretty. Perfect pastry with a smoky rice pudding interior balanced beautifully with the violet and zesty fruit.
'!'- Smoked rice brulée, violet curd, pate sable with mandarin & ruby grapefruit segments
People seemed scared of the olive oil dessert. I'm never scared of food, though I was a tiny bit apprehensive of the actual olive pieces, not being a huge fan of olives. I am a big fan of olive oil, and this dessert was like an olive oil party in my mouth. I found it intriguing and quite lovely.
'Z' - Olive oil biscuit, olive oil ganache, vanilla candied Kalamata olives, lemon & olive oil crème, vanilla lemon crème legere, jumbo gumbo jelly
The one I that had me at hello was the coke can. One look at it and you start to understand why he turns all the food bloggers into gushing groupies. I mean, look at it! I took this one home with me to enjoy privately hehe, though it barely survived the trip (see below). Yes I did try slurping up the gooey innards and made some very offense gloopy noises, the fizzy disc was really fizzy, and the whole thing was just sensational! I also purchased two others, though I only tasted the 'M' while A snuck off with the cheesecake in the middle of the night. The lemon curd and sable sand of the 'M' were lovely but I think the baked meringue was a touch too crunchy for me. I also enjoyed a mint hot chocolate while I was eating the goodies in the cafe. It was rich and thick, the right amount of sweetness with just a hint of mint.
'Escape from a Columbia Rainforest' - Flourless chocolate sponge, dark chocolate fizzy disc, cherry cola jelly, cherry cola slurp, chocolate sabayon mousse
‘M’ - Baked meringue, crème citron and sable sand 
‘Ed Rock the Cradle’ - Milk coffee cheesecake with chocolate cheesecake base, coffee scented caramel crème and Italian meringue
Mint hot chocolate
:
These two looked so yummy and they didn't seem to have nuts in them...and Belle looked like she was in heaven while consuming the 'S'!
‘S’-Tea and passionfruit soaked pears and savarin, lavender saffron mascarpone crème, crumble, raspberry jelly, coconut rehydration pipette
‘X' - Pine nut gianduja mousse, dark chocolate crème, pate feulletage caramelise, sacher sponge
Chocolate counterNuts nuts nuts...
‘.....’ - Hazelnut meringue, anzac moisture, mint chocolate disc, vanilla apple tatin chantilly, apple tatin compote, isomalt caramel 
Also very nutty - 'P', 'V' & 'W'Several bumps by some not so polite Balmainians on the trek home led to some chaos in my poor little Zumbo box :( I was almost too scared to open it to look when I got home. Noooooooo....
Carnage!The desserts are all at a such a high level of gorgeousness that it is almost too painful to damage them by eating them. But you usually forget this initial hesistation once it gets to your tastebuds. So I've been Zumbo-fied and I will definitely be back for more. It was fantastic to meet or catch up with all the lovely bloggers (
Reem, Trina,
Anita,
Lili,
Simon,
Karen,
Belle,
Susan,
Chris and Tim) and a huge huge thank you to Adriano, Rachael and all the other staff at the cafe for spending the time and effort accommodating us and keeping us company! It was so sweet and truly awesome.
More carnage!
Shop 5, 308 Darling Street Balmain
(02) 9555 1199
Monday-Friday: 8am to 4pm
Saturday: 8am-5pm
Sunday: 9am-5pmand
296 Darling Street Balmain
(02) 9810 7318
Monday-Saturday: 8am to 6pm
Sunday: 8am-4pm
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