Imma talk about macarons today! Not to be confused with macaroons, the one which is meringue like and has a coconut taste to it. These are normally sold in supermarkets like ASDA & Sainsbury’s in the UK.
Ok, back to the original topic. From what Ive read, macarons originate from France and the way to make it is very delicate which is why it is massively pricey! Hence, I don’t buy it very often. In the UK, Laduree in Harrods and Pierre Herme in Selfridges stock these macarons. Ive bought some of these from Malaysia and from the UK. Lets compare, shall we!
I bought these macarons from Harrods Malaysia at KLCC. Mind you, these macarons are not from Laduree. They don’t have Laduree in Harrods KL but you can still enjoy tea here but they serve a different selection of pastries than what Laduree would serve. How about the price of macarons here? Its MYR23.00 for 6 pieces which is MYR3.83/piece. Quite pricey for something as big as a 50 cent coin yea? And the taste? Slightly disappointing. Everything just taste the same! I felt like my teeth were biting into a sinking pit of sugar everytime a took a bite in any of them. I think the flavours were chocolate, coffee, lemon,strawberry, blueberry, and apple. I cant really recall. And the filling was mostly jam based which wasn’t to my liking. People who would be tasting macarons for the first time here will have a bad impression of macarons then. Not cool-lah.
And here are the ones I bought from Pierre Herme, Selfridges in the UK. The flavours were salted caramel, chocolate, rose, liquorice, lemon, and passionfruit. Price? £9.00 for 6 pieces making it £1.50/piece or MYR7.50/piece. Whoaaa expensive much! That’s why I took ages to finish each one! That’s kind of like the beauty of it. I savoured the macarons by taking small bites and trying to figure out the different tastes each time I go in for a bite! It was really nice! I loved salted caramel the most! Each macaron had a cream based filling and the tastes were all very distinct! I can taste the burnt caramel in the caramel one and the zest in the lemon one. It was truly a nice experience eating this macarons. Whenever you are in London make sure to try these kay! Just once at least for the experience! The quality is just astounding.
Having been disappointed with the macarons from Harrods KL, I am quite confident that there are places in Malaysia which sells much nicer macarons. Will be on a hunt for it next time I am back. I will leave this post with a picture of the Macaron Tower which is a creation of Adriano Zumbo, a renowned patissier in Australia.
Photo credit: The Telegraph, Australia.
