Sunday, March 08, 2009

Macarons Part Deux

In my recent post about Paulette's macarons in Hayes Valley, one of you commented about how it compares to the macarons at La Boulange right across the street and how several Yelpers have done a face-off between the two macaron makers.

Well, I didn't head all the way back to Hayes Valley to check out the macarons at La Boulange (which actually is one of my favorite places to hangout), but I did check out the macarons at their Market Street outpost near downtown when I was running errands recently.

The macarons at La Boulange are about the same size as Paulette's, but they're a dime cheaper at $1.50 each (compared to $1.60 at Paulette's). There were a variety of flavors but I decided to just pick up a couple to take home: the Mango-Passion Fruit and the Pistachio.

I tried the Mango-Passion Fruit first and it was super sweet, with the gooey center almost tasting like candy because of the sugar level. The Pistachio was oddly hard to eat, almost like it was stale. It was really hard to chew into it, and I barely got any nutty taste to it.

In the end, I decided because of the apparent inconsistency in flavor and texture of La Boulange's macarons, Paulette seems to be a better option. I'm still thinking of its yummy chocolate macaron.

La Boulange at Market, 685 Market St., San Francisco. PH: 415.512.7610. www.baybread.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, between you and Food Gal, my so-called "diet" is clearly being shot to h3ll! I've never had a macaron, but as soon as I come across one down here in Cupertino, let me tell you, I will be reporting in immediately! Thanks (sort of) Single Guy :-)

Carroll

Anonymous said...

Hard-to-chew macarons?? Oh noooo! That does not sound good at all. And with my fave pistachio flavor? Sigh...

Anonymous said...

yuck, stale sticky stuff sounds unpleasant enough that I won't bother visiting. The other place sounds much better. I'm a philistine and don't think I like macarons for the most part, but the chocolate one sounds good...