Macaron

I admit with a little shame that one of the things I was most excited about our trip to Paris is to finally have a macaron, my favorite cookie invented by the French, in France. I love its moist, chewy interior and crunchy, egg shell-like exterior. It comes in a wide variety of flavors from the traditional (e.g., vanilla, chocolate) to modern (e.g., rose, jasmine). Based on a brief internet research, the best macarons are to be found at Laduree and Pierre Hermes, so we went to both while in Paris (sidenote: here is an interesting blog post from Hipparis.com about the rivalry between the two).

I loved the macarons at both places. My favorites were the coffee and the caramel with salt ones from Laduree. What I would do for some right now!