Going “home” for holidays is all about r&r. You don’t have anything to see (aside people), there’s nothing pressing to do. You can just chillax. And so from the moment I touched down in Sydney on Monday morning, I did nothing but slugabed around for a solid 48 hours. Oh wait, I lied. I snuck out for a quick dinner at my favourite Mamak, then came straight home to sleep.
After 48 hours of nothingness (and superbly well rested), I started getting a little cabin feverish so thank god I had plans afoot for a fun Wednesday out and about!
Starting bright and early at 9am, Lorraine and I trundled our way towards Manly to check out Adriano Zumbo’s new little shop along the wharf. Zumbo has been super famous in Sydney, mainly for his sweet treats and random macaron flavours. But all I wanted were his sausage rolls. We grabbed a couple (beef & chilli and um, pork & fennel I think?) and headed down to Manly wharf to eat by the beach. It was a little overcast but I didn’t care because I was eating SAUSAGE ROLLS on a BEACH WITH SAND. Do you appreciate the enormity of this situation?
I didn’t really escape the sweets though. As if I could. After the sausage rolls, we wandered back to the shop and meandered for hours (ok not really, but we were there a really long time) and shared a “cobb & co” – corn meringue, mango lime gel, corn mousse, creme corn on popcorn crunch. Totally weird, totally Zumbo.
He actually has a stunning selection of sweet stuff – and all beautifully made – I could have totally eaten all of them. Self control, yo.
I did however buy a selection of his macarons to share with a friend over gallons of oolong tea yesterday. Some of the flavours were blech (eucalyptus for example, which is an oil I burn when I’m sick not something to put in my mouth) but there were also some winners (toasted marshmallow YUM and pandan coconut).
After whiling the afternoon away, I hurried back into the city for dinner. I kinda wanna talk about how my cheap ass waited half an hour for the free bus shuttle because I didn’t want to pay $2 for a bus ride and how it never came because it stopped running at 3.30pm but NO. I will not. Anyway. I made it to Löwenbräu at some point and there, Suze, Phuoc, Karen and I attempted to tame the German pork beasts.
Now, Löwenbräu is literally down the street from my Sydney office and I’ve had many an adventure there in the past. Like one time when the waiter dropped not one, not two but THREE full plates of food on Panu. That was fun. Anyway, the food’s good and it’s the one place in this world I choose to drink beer (mango wheat beer FTW!) so I still go back
Fresh baked pretzels!
GIANT pork knuckle!
Fatty awesome pork belly!
Chicken schnitzel!
What’s not to like, right?
We didn’t end up having any dessert at Löwenbräu because Suze was going on and on about this cookie in a skillet that they had around the corner at Hart’s Pub. Cookie. IN A SKILLET. No further explanation required.
The warm and gooey choc chip cookie was DELISH, topped with a very generous ball of ice cream. We all rolled home happy.
And it’s now 10am and I need to get my butt moving cos I’m going out to soak up the sunshine today!
Adriano Zumbo
Shop 10/40 East Esplanade
Manly, 2095
(02) 9810 7318
website
Löwenbräu Keller
18 Argyle Street
The Rocks, 2000
(02) 9247 7785
website
Harts Pub
Corner Essex & Gloucester Streets
The Rocks, 2000
(02) 9251 6030
website
