there was quite a bounty of macaron at adriano zumbo patissier last week. besides the four you see here, there was also mandarin, liquorice, and fresh mint.

“won’t you try the fresh mint?” asked counterboy when i had made my selection. i wrinkled my nose at the lurid green.

“i don’t like mint-flavoured things,” i explained.

“it’s not mint-flavoured,” he insisted, “it’s fresh mint.” and then he handed me one over the counter to prove his point.

and whaddya know — it really was minty! not toothpasty in the slightest. but, eh, mint.

so we left with the four: chocolate, which the kid picked for herself; rose, which is my all-time, number-one favourite; passionfruit and yoghurt, which is a softer, more delicate version of the bright and brassy regular passionfruit…

…and tomato sauce. yuh!

look at it! all gussied up with fancy jewels of crushed-up flotsam. don’t let that fool you; this was heinz big red through and through. it was surprisingly salty upfront, umami even, before rounding out the edges of my tongue with the familiar sweet and sour of childhood. through the power of suggestion, i could almost taste ground beef too. well. i liked it anyway, and i suffered an immediate craving — still unfulfilled — for a big, fat hamburger.

i wonder if the pastry chef would make a banh mi macaron — baquette-flavoured biscuit, with a tangy pickled carrot and radish ganache, and a dab of pork paté hidden in the middle. i wonder…