until noon today, it had been more than a week since i last went to zumbo. i thought it was necessary to cut down the visits because… well, it wasn’t so much that my clothes were feeling tight, but my skin certainly was. is that worse?

but we popped in today, just to see if the macaron were hanging out in their acrylic tubs, and it was like a display of precious jewels: red, purple and orange. two of them i had not encountered before — raspberry and blackcurrant — and the third i just got for good measure because it’s in my top three favourites.

the raspberry macaron, from the bite and a half i managed to wheedle out of maeve, had a smooth and mild candy-like flavour. by which i mean candy that has been flavoured with real raspberry juice, rather than like, whatever they put in frangos, by which i mean, if you eschew fresh raspberries because they are sometimes tart and intense, then this macaron could be good for you, because it tastes of raspberries that are not tart and intense.

the blackcurrant macaron is still in its cellophane baggie in my backpack, but i’m sort of hoping it tastes like ribena. i’ll let you know.

the mandarin macaron also survived the mid-afternoon sugar slump, but i know it well and i love it.

before the early lunchtime crowd forced us back out onto the street, i managed to find out that zumbo is now also a purveyor of sonoma breads. indeed, i looked up at the bread shelf high above my head, and in the corner was my favourite and my best soy and linseed sourdough loaf, with the whole soybeans. this is great news because it means i will no longer have to make a special detour in glebe for it. yay.

and also, because my attempts to eat less cake by making fewer trips to zumbo didn’t quite work out, because, well, if you’ve been reading, you’ll see that i’ve been to a bunch of other pastryshops in the inner city instead… because of that, another reason to stop at zumbo every day or so will not be such a terrible thing.