Friday Food: Ladurée

A few weeks ago I went to Trent's apartment to watch the Oscars with him and Alisha. Trent was planning to make a jalepeño popper grilled cheese, and Alisha was bringing brie and making guacamole. I reprised my role as bearer of the dessert from our similar Golden Globes party a few weeks prior and picked up cannoli because I was near Little Italy for the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade. For the Oscars, I wanted to bring something even fancier and a little special, so I decided on macarons. 

Even though they're super trendy right now, I didn't have my first macaron until a little over a year ago. I haven't had one since, but I've been wanting to try Ladurée ever since I first found out that they had a store on the Upper East Side. They've also recently opened another shop in Soho, but I decided to walk across Central Park to the original on Madison Ave.

Ladurée was founded in Paris in 1862, and they make the quintessential macaron. They actually ship all of their macarons directly from Paris, so I'm assuming it's the best you can possibly get without actually going to Paris. I wouldn't say that macarons are my absolute favorite dessert, and some of the flavors that people come up with sound downright disgusting. I will say, however, that they are interesting, and completely unlike anything I've ever really had before. 

The first time I had them the novelty factor was very high, but this time I knew more or less what to expect. The shop is very, and kind of absurdly, fancy— gloved men very carefully put your chosen macarons into crazy expensive gift boxes one at a time, handling them as if each were a precious newborn baby. The experience of it all is half the fun, but believe me, you pay for it. Each macaron at Ladurée is $2.80 and that adds up quickly. 

If you don't need a souvenir box then you can get the less sturdy pastry boxes (free), which was totally fine for transporting them across the city. I got one of each flavor they had that day (minus the orange since I only wanted 16) and some were incredibly delicious (pistachio) and some were kind of awful (rose). It was fun to try a variety, but there were definitely some that I need not ever eat again. The lemon was okay, but I was most excited for that one so it didn't really live up to my expectations. I remember the first lemon macaron I ever had wasn't great either, so maybe lemon is a flavor that just doesn't translate well into a macaron. 

So was it worth trekking to the east side, waiting in a ten-minute line and paying $2.80 per macaron just to say I had my first Ladurée experience? Probably not, but that doesn't mean they weren't a delicious, fancy and incredibly beautiful treat, which is exactly what I wanted for the Oscar party.