I miss macarons

So until my trip to France, I'd never understood what the whole deal with macrons was. First off, I'd always get confused between the macaron and the macroon, not really knowing the difference until recently when I looked it up. The macaron (mah-ka-rohn) is a French pastry cookie made of two almond meringue cookies that sandwich a cream filling, usually either a swiss meringue buttercream, ganache, or jam. I like to think of it as being the fancy French version of a gourmet Oreo (maybe because I just really liked Oreos). They come in all different flavours and colours and are very delicate, giving off a smooth, crackly texture when you bite into it.

The macroon on the other hand, is an American cookie that is kinda like a ball of baked coconut shreds, sometimes drizzled with chocolate. I don't really find them particularly tasty



As I was saying, I'd never really bought into the hype of the macarons because first off, I'd thought they looked kind of odd and not extremely appetizing. Compared to the visual appearance and tantalizing allure of a chocolate chip cookie, the macron looks like a pretty plastic toy. And the bright, pastel colours always threw me off a bit: pink, blue, green and.... purple cookies?

Then there was the issue of the neat little price tag: averaging at about $1.50 to $2.50 each, the macron is hardly an everyday indulgence. I had subconsciously come to the conclusion that these were some fancy, all-for-show, rich cookies that only fancy, all-for-show, rich folks eat, and thus, never bothered with them.





Enter Lyon. The culinary capital of France. This little metropolitan city is actually more renown its food scene than Paris - one walk down it's restaurant districts and you'll see why. There're barely any tourists here, which means that there aren't any gimmicky tourist cafes and food stands that churn out mediocre food to hungry tourists who'll eat anything. lnstead, it's the locals who are out enjoying themselves on the patios, with two or three course meals featuring the plat du jour. And I love the fabulous farmers market that stretches all the way down the river three times a week (the other two days it's a market for woven goods and pottery).



One day, I decided to pick up a boxful at the daily market where a lady was selling for half price because they were broken. Actually, it was more like the lady convinced me to buy them because she spot me lingering by her stand... and I'm the worst person ever when it comes to saying "no" to anyone. So I handed over 3.50 euros for half a dozen broken macarons and thanked the lady, "Merci beaucoup" (who replied back to me in English. Sigh. And I had thought my accent was improving).

I thought I should wait to eat it because it was about 10 in the morning and far too early to have a cookie... and then I remembered that I was on vacation, so I dove in. One bite and I was in pastry heaven. Literally swooning and unable to think, I sat down on the steps of a post office thinking, "Oh. My. God". It was, quite possibly, the best pastry/dessert/anything sweet that I have ever had in my entire life. They were everything and more. They were.... perfect.



Although not overly sweet, they were very rich so I couldn't eat them all at once... even though I tried to. Anyways, lucky for me I had had the best macrons on my first try... because when I got to Paris, I visited four different pastry shops to find a macaron that could match my first experience, but all were subpar. I think I became somewhat of a macaron snob, because everytime I would try a new shop and be disappointed, I'd be all like "Psh! You call THIS a macron? Blasphemous! Disgrace!" and storm out in fury with my arms flailing in the air. Who knew that the best would be found in some ghetto-looking trailer at a farmer's market that wasn't even in the capital of France? I would visit Lyon again just so I could have another taste of those ethereal cookies.


So that's my story. I am officially a macron convert. I was thinking of doing an attempt at making them myself, but everytime I've tried to make swiss meringue buttercream in the past, I've failed miserably. In the meantime, I did find a French bakery ( petitethuet.com) in Toronto that does macarons pretty darn good. I'm still all hung up over my Lyon ones... but for now, these will do. (Yes, I'm aware that I still sound like a macron snob). They come at $1.50/ea and are a delightful little treat if you need a mid-week pick me up. There are four locations, one at Rosedale, two on King street, and one on Eglinton.