Got to love friends who tantalize your senses and tempt you with rich sweet goodies that tease your tongue and bring such profound delight! They told us that they must take us to LADURÉE on the Champs Elysées - not only a grand, stunningly civilized yet festive place to indulge in exotic teas but more importantly a place where you can thoroughly enjoy a color filled feast with the likes of these sublimely delicious macarons in flavors such as: coffee, chocolate, vanilla, coconut, lemon, raspberry, pistachio, mint, liquorice, caramel, orange flower, black currant-violet, and more.

They were packed up in this very beautiful box and were pretty much demolished by the seven of us right after we took these pictures. I enjoyed a lemon one with additional shared tastes of a pistachio, and then vanilla – Oh My God is something I recall saying – really amazing, perfectly balanced flavors, fantastic delicate texture, just the right amount of cream filling. An exceptional indulgence to further grace an exceptional walking tour of Paris led by our three wonderful friends!

So this was back in May, and as I have mentioned in previous posts I have been wanting to hold on to our Paris visit for as long as I can. I thought I would try to make these but even though I have found a few recipes: one recipe, another recipe, and another (and this last one is supposedly “the” translated recipe direct from the source) – I haven’t attempted it yet. If you decide to try any of these will you let me know how they come out? Thanks…. and of course thanks to these three terrific sites that I found them on.

When I found Delicieuse (scroll 2 posts down for that write up), I asked the owner if she made macarons and she told me no as her company was not a patissiere, but she suggested a lovely patissiere not too far in the city of Lomita, so I decided to give it a try. (BTW we finally went to Delicieuse for lunch last Saturday – fabulous – really wonderful, great food in an enchanting setting with kind, attentive service, and of course I was in great company – couldn’t have asked for more!)

So my son’s and I made a special trip to find Patissiere Chantilly one day last week. It was quite a bustling little shop, with every table full, and people lined up at the counter waiting to place their order. Everything looked so perfectly beautiful set behind the shiny glass case, decorated with great attention to little details. We ordered 6 macarons in the 3 flavors they had available that day – Green Tea, Chocolate, and I didn’t catch the type of the last one, but it may have been Black Currant. My guys ordered a Mont Fraise each, which was a fancy and fun looking pink strawberry mountain, and I had a small slice of their signature cheese cake, Chantilly Fromage, which was quite luscious – nice and dense with an intense cheese taste (I had planned on getting a Choux á la Créme but the lady in front of me walked out with 3 huge boxes of them and I was informed there were no more left – next time maybe.) The guys ate their mounds in the back seat of the car on the ride home – said they were very good with an interesting, gelatinous texture sitting atop a scrumptious strawberry tart. We anxiously awaited to taste the macarons until after we shot an acceptable photo. Don’t they look pretty?

Well, they do look very nice, and they tasted good, but not exactly what we were anticipating, unfortunately. The texture was completely different and the filling, although quite tasty, was a bit over powering. I really wanted to love these – but there just is no comparison (really, how could there be? Besides, our trip to Ladurée was just a small, yet really enjoyable part of the bigger package – that being the sensational reconnection with our dear friends, and the only way to recapture all the sentiments that went along with that would be to go back to Paris- to expect to hold on to that point in time by way of something we ate, is just ridiculous and way too much responsibility for one tiny confection. There, I have come to my senses- I will just treasure the memories!)

I will definitely go back to this enticing shop though, they had many other delectable little goodies I certainly wouldn’t mind trying. I hope you decide to check it out too – you may want to call first to make sure they are open – they were working with summer hours and actually the first time we went to check them out after noon on a weekday, they were closed.

So after you go visit, come back and let us know what we should try next!

Visit their website for address, hours, alluring color photos, and full menu.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Recipes, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.