The BITE ME Project (intro + no.8 Macarons from Adriano Zumbo Patisserie)

My current home diet: (clockwise from top left) apples & oranges; ham, cheese, tomato and avocado on sourdough; sourdough toast with avocado and tomato with salt and pepper; pesto pasta & potato salad; sandwich & apples; easymac; strawberries; ham, cheese, tomato and honey wholgrain mustard sandwich

I recently read the article 'Bite Me - The 50 things every Sydney food lover should try' by Terry Durack, in the October issue of the(sydney)magazine, after which it came to my attention that as a food lover living in Sydney, I had not tried so many of the things that Durack claimed that I should have!

The BITE ME Project is my attempt to cover as many of the 50 things that Durack suggests I, as a food over in Sydney, should try. With each taste, I will review whether or not I think the food was worthy to make the top 50 and at the end, hopefully with a much broader sense of food appreciation, I will review if I found the article to be a true representation of the jewels that the Sydney food treasure chest has to offer.

When on holidays we find ourselves often oohing and ahhing at cathedrals, monuments and customs, however when we see people taking photos on the Opera House steps we barely bat an eyelash. Sometimes in order to appreciate what has always been accessible to us, in this case good food, we sometimes have to pretend we are tourists in our own home. So - let the project begin!

No. 8 Macarons from Adriano Zumbo Patisserie

Durack: Before Balmain patissier Adriano Zumbo and MasterChef came along, the macaron was just a delightfully fragile dome-shaped meringue made of little more than egg whites, sugar and almond meal, crisp to the bite and lusciously chewy inside. Now it's a phenomenon, in ever-more-dazzling flavours such as beetroot and raspberry, caramelised hummus, passionfruit and yoghurt, and pumpkin orange risotto

Vanessa: As Durack promises, the initial bite that shatters the fragile crispy dome is a window which opens to a lusciously creamy and densely flavoursome centre. The macarons are a highly satisfying and textually dynamic eat - the coffee, pistachio and chocolate (pictured) although not quite as adventurous choices as beetroot and raspberry, are especially delicious. I am not usually a fan of coffee-flavoured foods, however the creamy centre is nothing to protest to. The only thing to beware is not to fall into the trap of consuming copious amounts, the macarons are so saturated in flavour that a sugar OD is highly plausible.

Of course it's MasterChef fame does help us to project our preconceived television-love onto these little macarons as few would dream of contesting Matt, George and Gary, however these are the real deal. They may be the-Kardashians-in-a-weekly-magazine of the top 50 article, however without the hype they would still be worthy participants. If you are craving a macaron, Zumbo's possess everything a good macaron should.

$2 each

296 Darling Street, Balmain

9810 7318

adrianozumbo.com