he rage these days; every pastry shop in town is lining their showcase will rows and rows of these colourful goodies. Foodies on the web are crawling the streets, looking for macaron and eager to share their latest find on the world wide web. Just now, I read a blog post on her in-depth review, complete with pictures showing how round and flat the macaron shell is; how those "feets" are sticking out as they should be. There's even a carefully cut cross-section shot showing the shells aren't hollow, and the filling-to-shell ratio is just right. Then finally, a sentence or two telling us that the texture is soft and mellow; with a little bit of chew. And in conclusion, shop XXX produces a passable macaron. The masses are reading these posts, feeling educated about macaron and ever so ready to hit the streets, buy a six-pack from the corner bakery and do his own macaron review. Sorry. When is the last time you see a chocolate chip cookie review on the web? One that measure the diameter of the cookie; chocolate chip distribution ratio, crunchy versus chew... Yet, chocolate chip cookies are still our favourite bedtime treat (with a glass of milk, thank you very much!) Not that the technical aspect of macaron is not important; all of the above are the characteristics of this wonderful treat.
However, I would much rather introduce the macaron as I did couple years ago, when we are promoting macaron at a food and wine show. A lady approached our showcase and go, "Oh, look at these colourful cookies, like lil' hamburgers. What ARE these!?"
Then I would explain what a macaron is, what it's made of, how the texture is like, why is it so expensive, ya da ya da ya da.... Then come my favourite moment: when she bit into the macaron and her eyes opened wide, eye brows went up then came together, couple chews and swallow, "Oh my God, I never expect it to be so delicious! What's it call again?" Macaron. And that's all she had to remember: her first bite into heaven.
