Macaron, NOT MACAROON!

 

In the words of the great Peter Griffin, "You know what really grinds my gears?". When people refer to these ethereal french pastry creations as macaroons, I cringe. There is a big difference. The difference is that one is made by a professional pastry cook and the other is made by my Bubbie Rose in Boca Raton. These are Macarons, pronounced as it is written. If you haven't tried one yet, you should drop what your doing right know and run, as fast as you can to your nearest french bakery. The Macaron is a   sandwich of two cookies made of meringue and almond flour with a butter cream and jam center. The cookies are carefully piped onto baking sheets and cooked slowly to create a dome that collapses under your teeth as you bite down, then dissolves away. The butter cream and jam center of these Macarons can be any combination a pastry cook could come up with. The Macarons in the above photo were from the Apple Pie Bakery at the Culinary Institute of America.  They are flavored, from top left to bottom right as follows: Cherry limeade , Litchi and raspberry, goat cheese and apricot, orange creamsicle, vanilla white chocolate. My favorite was  the litchi and raspberry. Goat cheese and apricot was also very pleasing on the palate. The whole sweet, sour, salty element of it was very cool. I cant say that I was a fan of the Cherry limeade. Perhaps this flavor combination should stay in its original birthplace, the slushy department at Sonic on route 9. And to make my point very clear here, this is what a Macaroon looks like. Also this is what my Bubbie Rose in Boca looks like.

So here is a little more about these incredible empanada's. First I would like to address the fact that there are only two empanadas on the plate in the picture when I clearly state that there were three flavors. Its true, there were three flavors. This is simply explained by the fact that I got excited and ate the first one before I could blog about it. The first empanada I got was a Mexican style jamon y queso (Jam and cheese for you Yankees). It's crust was flaky, crispy and delicate on the outside, with a flowing river of melty white queso and salty jamon on the inside. The second, just queso, was all that was described in the first, simply minus the jamon. Last but certainly not least was the Chilean style baked beef empanada. I can always appreciate this one because it has a unique fold to seal it closed, it has an olive in it (just one!) and it has a hard boiled egg in there too, because why not, right? Plus its baked so that makes it totally healthy for you, duh. So these empanadas were really good but the unsung hero of the meal was the sauce that it came with. It was basically a pico de gallo style salsa with the addition of some hot sauce. I don't think any sauce could have complimented the crispy and cheesy empanadas better than the fresh and spicy salsa  that came in the little plastic mystery cup. Empanada's hold a very special place in my heart, unfortunately that place is my clogged aorta in about 30 years. Is it worth it? Si!

Finally found a good Chilean bakery!

Three empanadas, cheese, ham and cheese, beef. Salsa picante. Increible!

Hi peoples of the world,

My name is Jake Sumberg and I am a culinary arts student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. I love to cook and I love food, all of it. This blog is devoted to both of these loves and the ever changing, always interesting food industry. I plan to review new and interesting food and drink products. I will also try and give you a peek into the fine dining food industry from the perspective of a cook. 

I AM EL FOODERINO

Enjoy!

First post ever, it's poutine, people