Glaces et Macarons

Everyone knows that Paris is known for all of the excellent French cuisine--the fresh ingredients, the myriad variety of cheeses, and of course, the ohhh-so-wonderful desserts. Being the ice cream fiends that we are, we couldn't live in Paris and pass up what is possibly the best ice cream in the world from Berthillon. Our last visit there only served to whet our appetite for another visit.

Last week while on one of our many walks around town, we decided to go to Berthillon and get some ice cream to-go since their Salon de thé closes down rather early by Paris standards (8 pm).

We decided to get three (yes, three!) different flavors in little half-liter containers. The friendly staff behind the counter asked us if we wanted them in boites and since it didn't cost anything extra we said "sure". They packaged each little box into it's own little styrofoam container to keep it cold on the way home; what a nice touch.

OK, so here are the flavors that we got: chocolat noir (dark chocolate), caramel au beurre salé (salted butter caramel), and poire (pear) sorbet. When we got home and opened the boxes, we were delighted to see that the ice creams were fashioned into perfect little square molds. We couldn't wait to try our triple flavor combination.

We decided that rather than try and scoop the ice cream, we'd slice it and this actually worked out great as you can see. It's a good thing that our friends Helen and Jen are here to help us eat all that ice cream this week.

Berthillon
31, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'ile
Metro: Pont Marie

Another absolutely decadent Parisian delight are the elegant little French macarons, cookies that are made of egg whites and pulverized almonds, filled with butter cream, ganache or a fruity filling of jam. Pastry chefs in Paris delight in creating the cookies in various fun and seasonal flavors, including classic chocolate, vanilla, coffee, strawberry, mango, passion fruit, salted caramel, black pepper, and violet, to name just a few of the many possibilities. Lynna calls these delicate sandwich cookies France's answer to the Oreo!

I have to admit that on previous visits to Paris, Lynna and I didn't fully appreciate these airy, nutty, and somewhat expensive little treats. But that has all changed on this trip.

A few weeks back we sampled some of the fabulous macarons from Ladurée while on a walk in the Latin quarter. For the first time, it seemed, we really tasted how good macarons can be. Truly well-made, Ladurée's version are known the world over, for good reason. Each fancy cookie had the perfect balance of filling to cookie. But we had heard that some of the best macarons in Paris can be found at Pierre Hermé.

So this past Thursday, we visited one of Pierre Hermé's shops located on rue Bonaparte and got a sampling of ten different macarons. Some of the flavors were: fruit de la passion et chocolat au lait (passion fruit and milk chocolate), truffe blanche et noisette (white truffle and hazelnut -- which I couldn't eat as je suis allergique) -- and rose. We parked ourselves on a little bench at a little Christmas bazaar and shared a few of them. They were absolutely incredible.

Each delicious bite was greeted with the tender crumbling of the airy, fragile cookie followed by the intense flavor of the filling. Pierre Hermé's unique flavors were absolutely divine and Lynna and I remarked how we didn't expect to like some of the flavor combinations, but were pleasantly surprised by many of them.

My favorite was the passion fruit and milk chocolate and Lynna's was the milk chocolate with praline filling. We were also delighed to find a little guide featuring a color photograph and description of each macaron from the Autumn/Fall Macaron Collection tucked inside our box. Perhaps we'll attempt to make some after we've settled back into our house. We're gathering recipes and tips at the moment because they are apparently not easy to make. Meanwhile, we cannot wait to treat ourselves to a few more of these delightful little treats before we head back to California in (gulp) a week.

Pierre Hermé
72, rue Bonaparte (6th arr.) and 185, rue de Vaugrigard (15th arr.)
Paris