Mad about Macs ( Macarons ) !

If you are an Instagram addict ( like I am ), maybe you are noticing that many of Macarons pic dominating the popular page. Is it just me or maybe the world has already hypnotize by this cute, colorful, sweet, yet delish thingy ? :D

Let's just forget a lil' bit of Red Velvet Cake or Rainbow Cake here, I think macarons also one of the 'it' and trendy dessert. They also have been sightseen in Marie Antoniette Movie by Sofia Coppola, Sex and the City movie and in Gossip Girl. So I think many of you are curious too, what's this macarons is all about ???

Macarons ( not macaroon ?! or macaroni :p ) is a sweet meringue based made with egg whites, ground almond / almond powder and sugar. It is said that the macaron as it is known today was created by Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Ladurée at the end of the 17th Century. Until now, Ladurée not only selling their signature macarons, but also many range of luscious dessert and delicatessen, until .... parfume!

Big thanks to a posh fashion blogger Cindy Karmoko ( who lives in Milan ), finally me myself could tasted Ladurée's macarons ! When I receive it, I could not stop looking at it, I could not stop taking photo of it, I could not stop tweet about it :p Yes it's definitely a box of heaven ! The packaging is simple but so luxurious. Loves the detail !
It has many kinds of flavor. Vanilla, Coffee, Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, Lime, Salted Caramel, Liqourice, Rose Petal, Orange Blossom, Raspberry, Blackcurrant Violet, Coconut. I think Ladurée's macarons really set the bar for every macarons worldwide. Even though it's not fresh from the oven ( 3 or 4 days ), it's still tasted fresh ! A great macarons should be crispy on the outside, but soft and smooth texture ( not too sticky and chewy ) on the inside. Also needs to had the macarons 'feet' ( some rough ruffly on the edges ), and to me, still had a textured from the ground almond ( like a very very tiny bits of almond ). And you know what, I think Ladurée's macarons has all the criteria :) and one more! Laduree's macarons has a really generous filling! Perfect!

*macarons are sooo fragile. not all survived the long flight*

With sooooo many flavor ( and all of them was really delish too! ), my top 3 picks (hard choice!) are..... Salted Caramel, Pistachio and Dark Chocolate! Salted caramel has a perfect balance of sweet and salty taste. Pistachio, it's just simply good ( sorry lost my words for describe it ). Dark Chocolate, who doesn't love chocolate?? It has a perfect taste of sweet and bitterness of chocolate. Another interesting flavor is Coconut ( has a bit of shredded coconut in it. nom nom ), Rose Petal ( it's soapy at first, but after that you'll dig some more ), Raspberry ( quite sour and refreshing. Perfect for clean the palate ). Last question, how much are those??? For a box of 24 macarons cost €56 ;D ( pricey huh? But it's worth though )

So enough about Ladurée, what about Jakarta ? What's Jakarta do to welcoming the waves of macarons? Apparently ..... it's quite good now! Now I've seen many places of patisserie serving macarons, and... restaurant too, but the hilarious one is, even in facebook people selling macarons. LOL. So here is some of my macarons experiences in Jakarta, hope you guys enjoy it !:)

Kempi Deli ( Grand Indonesia )
Price : IDR 10.000/each ( 1 USD )
Flavor : Raspberry ( The best ! ) , Pistachio ( Nice! ) and Passion Fruit ( Too soapy )
Texture : Nice crunch on the outside, perfect smoothness on the inside.
Feet & Presentation : Nice !
Fillings : Tasted nice, but the pistachio one doesn't has a generous filling.
Bakerzin ( from my Bakerzin Artisan Bread post )
Price : IDR 7.500/each ( 0,75 USD )
Flavor : Lemon Cheesecake ( Strong Lemon Taste, can't taste the cheese ), Pistachio ( need more strong of pistachio flavor ) , Blueberry ( so so ), Framboise Raspberry ( ok! ), Chocolate ( nice ! ), Strawberry Basil ( Interesting flavor! Nice !)
Texture : Medium level of crisp on the outer, a lil bit chewy on the filling.
Feet & Presentation : Nice ! Especially a mixed color on Lemon Cheesecake one. Cute.
Fillings : Needs to work on the taste of the filling.

Manon ( at Kelapa Gading )
Price : IDR 7.000/each ( 0,7 USD )
Flavor : Tiramisu ( tasted nice ! ), Pistachio ( failed ),Coffee( quite strong coffee. nice )
Texture : doesn't have the crunch on the shell, and it's chewy. dislikes.
Feet and Presentation : so-so.
Fillings : The cream filling are too buttery. I think it's better if using something that has a textured like caramel or jam.
Monolog ( Plaza Senayan )
Price : IDR 12.000/each ( 1,2 USD )
Flavor : Salted Caramel ( failed ) , Jasmine Green Tea ( quite ok )
Texture : doesn't have the crunch on the shell, and it's really really chewy and sticky. dislikes.
Feet and Presentation : ok
Fillings : The green tea one tasted quite nice.
Yes I think that's all of my personal opinion about macarons. And you ? How about you? What do you think about macarons? What's the best macs experience that you had ? So far Kempi Deli was the best one in Jakarta to me. Worldwide, I also heard that Pierre Herme 's macarons also good too. And also from Sydney, Adriano Zumbo, with many interesting flavor of macarons like Satay or Cola flavor ?!:D

*From Google* :p

From my Instagram @Nvicl