Saturday, December 3, 2011

Laduree in NYC: Macaron Heaven!

When I heard that Laduree, the famous Parisian patisserie, was opening shop a few blocks north of my apartment I was thrilled to bits! Their macarons (not to be confused with macaroons), the little cakes made by compressing two soft macaron shells with gooey ganache in between are heavenly! After trying them in Paris many years ago I have searched high and low for the perfect macaron in New York and have always felt like there's something missing.



I waltzed over to Laduree the week it opened and the line extended out of the store and onto Madison Avenue! I begrudgingly stared at all those people and decided upon Plan B: Wait a couple of weeks and come back.

I gave it more than a few weeks and went by again recently. The 12-person deep line was not as intimidating so I joined in. Fifteen minutes later I was in front of the colorful counter and making the rather difficult decision of picking flavors. One of each please?



Standards like vanilla, chocolate and pistachio were joined by the more exotic salted caramel and rose petal. So many choices! Interesting tid-bit: The macarons come in directly from Paris once every two days.

After much going back and forth I narrowed it done to eight different flavors.

Success!
The hubby and I have since been slowly nibbling our way through this box. My favorites, I have to say, were coconut and vanilla!

Question: Have you ever tried macarons? Ever been to Laduree?