Tour du macaron

Every macaron must have its day, and this past Tuesday was it. The Jour du Macaron is the second happiest day of the year.^* In France for the past seven years, March 20 has been the day when the patisseries give away free macarons and donate part of their profits to charity. Other cities like London and New York have since gotten involved, but Toronto's only participant has been Nadège.

Until now.

My darling cousin, who used to work for Payard in New York and was the one who told me about Macaron Day last year, contacted Michel Firanski of La Bamboche about doing something this year. And they did! Participants gave away a free macaron, and 25% of the profits of the rest went to the Red Door Family Shelter. Since I am queen of overkill, I decided to do a whole tour. The plan: visit 9 patisseries by bike, buy 3 macarons from each in addition to the free one, die happy.

The result was mostly successful. It was a gorgeous day for riding a bike. Some bakeries had a special macaron they gave away for free, and some let you pick whichever flavour you wanted. Two of the bakeries were sold out of macarons (or, at least, sold out of the ones I wanted) and one was confusingly closed. And I nearly died of fright at one point. But in the end...

Let's just say that my prep periods this week have been delightfully tasty, as have my after-school snacks.

The route was mostly a loop up Yonge to Manor, over to Bayview, through Mount Pleasant cemetery, back to Yonge, to Yorkville, and then home.

Fair warning: I am not a food reviewer, nor am I particularly expert on macarons. I just love them to death. I tried to choose unusual (to me) flavours, or at least ones I don't usually get. As far as I can tell, all the macarons were nice and fresh and therefore the texture was great. They all tasted terrifc. Even the smushed ones.

My first stop was Daniel & Daniel at Carleton and Parliament, right near school. It's a tiny store and there isn't a lot of flavour selection, but the macarons are only $1.50 each. They were giving away a special chocolate & cherry macaron that was quite tasty despite the heavy ganache. The red food dye turned my teeth red though... it was like those pills they gave us in elementary school to show up the plaque. It's not an attractive look.

I was concerned that my babies wouldn't survive the journey in the box intact, given how well the macarons from Bobette & Belle did, but there was only slight crumbling.

My next three patisseries were clustered together on Yonge St. Ordinarily I would have gone there via Jarvis & Bloor, but I followed Google's suggested route through Rosedale and I'm glad I did. It was a fairly scenic ride past the lovely and hideously expensive homes, and it brought me out right near Patachou on Yonge.

Again, not much variety in flavours, but they also only cost $1.50 each. I had to ask for the free one, and could choose between raspberry, chocolate, or vanilla. I chose vanilla since I was already buying a raspberry macaron. They were placed in a plain brown bag, and somehow managed to survive the bike trip unscathed.

My next two stops were Nadège on Yonge (I had only been to the Queen St. location) and Le Petit Thuet. While Nadège was celebrating Jour du Macaron, they weren't taking part of the official Toronto day. No free sample, and 50% of their profits went to the Children's Breakfast Club. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the unusual flavours I wanted to try: Earl Grey, poppy, olive oil, Guinness, and I wasn't going to settle. The clerk assured me they would be getting a fresh batch in an hour; since I thought I would be closer to home by then, I decided to visit the Queen St. store later.

At 4:45 pm, Le Petit Thuet had a sign saying they were sold out! I was slightly crushed, but the Dapper Cyclist had already promised me as many macarons as I deem fit from here some time in the future, so I knew I'd be back.^**

There was a good stretch of biking up Yonge (and I do mean up; yay for the Davenport Escaprment!) and it was mostly pleasant. I was expecting a lot more traffic, but it wasn't there. The only nasty part was the car full of yahoos who shouted at me to get the f@*$ off the road. I managed to shake it off and carried on.

The next stop was La Bamboche on Manor just off of Yonge. At $2.75 each, their macarons are slightly bigger than normal and they have lots of fun flavours.

Sadly, these guys took the biggest hit on the trip home, not only broken but you couldn't even tell what the original shape was. However, the "mystery" macaron mysteriously survived.

I biked uphill along Manor to the next two stops. First up on Bayview was Patisserie La Cigogne. I had to lock my bike to a parking sign, although it turns out there are a few ring & posts a bit further along. Again, a small variety, so I had to fall back on some old favourites. I wasn't really disappointed. Their tiny macarons cost $2 each.

These guys didn't make it home unsquashed, with the caramel being the biggest casualty. The nice thing about the chewiness of the macaron is that they pretty much hold together even when smashed flat, so you can still sort of eat a complete cookie. I have to learn to stop trying to like passion fruit, though. It's a losing battle.

A little further down Bayview, Rahier Patisserie has a bike ring just out front, which is delightful of them. I got there just as they were closing, which shook me a little because I realized I had just assumed all the places would be open all evening. Their tiny macarons were $1.10 each, the cheapest of the bunch, and they also had a few unusual flavours. Their special macaron was caramel-coffee which was much bigger than the ones they had for sale.

These guys managed the trek quite well, although there was some filling seepage.

The next part of the trip was supposed to take me through Mount Pleasant cemetery, and I admit to being a bit of a dope because I didn't check the Google Maps street view and only looked at the directions. Step 16 says "Turn right at Sutherland Dr." Naturally, I assumed that there would be a street on my right called Sutherland. It turns out that no, there isn't, and what I needed to do was get off the bike, walk it up a few steps through a not terribly large pedestrian entrance into the cemetery. I thought I had been keeping an eye open for a sign saying what cemetery I was passing, and I can't believe I missed it. However, I did. I found myself biking all the way down Bayview, and this is where the ride became somewhat hair-raising.

Bayview, once you get past the residential area, is not a fun road to ride on. The posted speed limit is 60 km/h, but I can assure you that that is not the speed the cars are going at. Fortunately, I was going south so there wasn't as much traffic and I let all the cars go past me at the stoplight, so I wasn't as scared as I might have been, but it was still really unnerving. Bayview dips down into the river valley and there is no way to get off until you reach Pottery Road (which I didn't want to deal with), so that is how I found myself unexpectedly at the Brick Works.

It's a nice place to be, but I wasn't interested in visiting, just in getting out. Alas, I saw the shuttle bus leaving just as I got there, and the Brick Works is only accessible via a few trails that are not especially well-marked. I got directions from the cafe and found myself on a trail known as Milkmen's Run. It turns out I used to know this trail quite well because when I coached cross-country we would bring the team here for training. It's a dirt path strewn with gravel. I would occasionally ride the Tank here, and if it's not a true mountain bike, at least it didn't look out of place. On my pretty urban bike, wearing a dress and heels, I must have looked ridiculous. The Opus handled it fairly well; I got a bit of a fright going up one of the hills because it was covered with loose rocks, but my girl made it up, dignity mostly intact. We were fine until we reached the end; to get out of the ravine you have to climb a long, very steep hill we used to call the Beast. Loaded down as I was with my work panier, purse, and macarons, I only made it up half way in first gear before I gave up and walked. My Fluevogs may never forgive me.

I was back in Rosedale, and I briefly considered heading back to Nadège, but decided to go on. I was a little frazzled after the whole Bayview experience, and I didn't want to deal with biking up Yonge again, so I went directly to Yorkville and MoRoCo Chocolat.

At $2.75 each, they ain't cheap, but they always deliver on nifty flavours. They had run out of free macarons by the time I got there ("and by 'run out,' I mean we gave away about 450 of them!"), but I arrived just as they were putting out a fresh batch of delight.


My unexpected foray into the Brick Works meant that I was biking during Bike Hour, when I planned to be at home. So yay me.

My last stop of the tour was The Wedding Cake Shoppe. It's within walking distance of my apartment, but I had never been because I wasn't entirely sure if they served walk-in clients. The cakes in the window are beautiful and well-executed. However, they were on the list and so off I went. Confusingly, they were closed.

Look at that sign. Macaron Day was a Tuesday. Were they open? If so, why not until 7 pm like the rest of the weekdays? Argh! Signal your intent!

It didn't really matter because I had made out like a bandit at the six bakeries that I did visit.^*** I managed to not eat every single macaron that evening and saved them to take to school and for after work. I did, however, do a little triage right then and put the worst casualties out of their misery. Tasty, tasty misery.

So there you go. 6 out of 9 bakeries. 23 macarons. 20 flavours. Booyah.

^*Pancake Tuesday being the happiest, naturally.

^**This might have been an unwise word choice, because clearly I have have an unlimited capacity for macarons...

^***I wound up not visiting Nadège Queen St. after all, because I was just too pooped.