i am one lucky girl. i so am. barely two weeks into trying macarons from pierre hermé tokyo which the gf vickii so generously shared them with me, i received a msg in my facebook inbox from another gf, daphne. she went on her honeymoon to europe and got me macarons from pierre hermé paris and some from ladurée as well! i tell ya, ecstasy is an understatement. when she told me she got me a 12-pc box, i literally went over the moon!

and since vickii shared hers with me, its only natural i shared mine with hers and i'm glad i had the chance to :) we made a date at her new home, a lovely swanky condo with an open concept kitchen which is so conducive for conducting baking classes. when i saw her de dietrich oven, i went like "WOAH"!

flavors are : chuao, rose, coing & rose, medelice, mogador, infiniment vanille, imagine, pistache, marron & thé vert macha, chocolat, cafe. we tried some of the flavors like rose & mogador (passionfruit milk choc) previously but we were so curious to find out if there's any difference between the tokyo and paris ones. i have to say, they were indeed different! the tokyo ones were drier and the paris ones were moister and fresher. we had them with TWG's geisha blossom tea, my favorite!

from top : medelices (citron and praline noisette), infiniment vanille (vanilla macaron with beans from madagascar, mexico & tahiti) and pistache. the vanilla one was mind blowing!

coing & rose (quince & rose), chuao (very high quality chocolate from the chuao region in venezuela & cassis), imagine (macha & sesame noir).

and the macarons from ladurée. berry (tastes like cassis/blueberry), cafe & rose. we didn't like them coz the shells were really dry & crumbly. the berry one tasted like icing room's macarons with a very sweet jam filling.

my afterthought is, tho' i feel like i still can't fully appreciate the macarons coz they were moist but not chewy, i have to say that the flavor pairings were really good with quality ingredients used and the macarons remained soft despite eating them immediately out of the fridge. and what surprises me is the macarons were not cloyingly sweet tho' flavored white choc ganache. while browsing my ph10 book (in french!) i noticed pierre hermé adds inverted sugar syrup in the ganache filling, so it remains a mystery as to why the macarons weren't overly sweet. its just amazing, the work of the picasso of pastry alright.

the above pics were taken using my new lens, the 50mm f/1.8 prime. the cheapest lens in canon's range at $130 but quality wise its quite good. had the lens awhile back but i realized the secret to taking good pics with this lens is to shoot in manual mode, not aperture priority like i usually do so its easier to manipulate the exposure by adjusting the shutter speed. the photos turned out rather well this time coz of the good natural lighting and white furniture at vickii's home. can't wait to bake together :)) i love baking in fully air-conditioned, sleek, modern & chic kitchens :p