bonjour, little cookie.

We have found that it's always helpful to know a few basic words or phrases in a handful of different languages. Aside from hello, goodbye, yes, no, thank you, where is the bathroom, how much does this cost, and do you have a girlfriend, we'd like to add one more to the French list: macaron. It remains to be seen if these little cookies will catch on in the same way that cupcakes and frozen yogurt have, but given the trend's migration from Paris to New York, it seems as though a mini merengue sandwich storm may be headed our way.
So before the midwestern masses begin forming lines á la Sprinkles and Pinkberry..

..we highly recommend that you get your tush on over to Pierrot Gourmet. In addition to having fab food for a normal meal, this extension of the Peninsula Hotel is also quite dependable when it comes to macarons. On this past misty Saturday, we took advantage of the fact that PG is located in our 'hood and grabbed one of each flavor -- lemon, pistachio, dulce de leche, strawberry, coconut, chocolate mint, nutella, and chocolate. Since we couldn't be seated immediately, we took our 11am snack to Starbucks for a caffeine accompaniment, and while awkwardly sitting at the large communal table with a few other patrons who shot us judgy looks, we played food critics. We can't say one bad thing about the technique or texture, but a few of the cookies went a little too far into what we could only describe as "American." The dulce de leche and chocolate mint were like glorified candy bars with unnecessary ingredients stuffed in. A macaron is supposed to be light and airy, and that was muddled by the blob (technical term) of caramel in one and the taste of toothpaste in another. All of that aside, the lemon and pistachio were by far the best and most authentic, and we will most certainly be back for more.

We took K's canines for a stroll afterwards, and here's Chloe, strutting her tiny little waistline,
easily maintained due to the fact that we did not include her in the taste-testing.