"I suppose there are people who can pass up free guacamole, but they're either allergic to avocado or too joyless to live."— Frank Bruni

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

pet peeve

In the context of current popular gastronomy (as opposed to...? I don't know, maybe nitpicky technical culinary nitpickiness), let me clear something up for all those who are confusing the two.

This is a macaron:


This is a macaroon:



Ok, back to nitpicky technical stuff. According to the macaron wiki page:
"Since the English word macaroon can also refer to the coconut macaroon, many have adopted the French spelling of macaron to distinguish the two items in the English language. However, this has caused confusion over the correct spelling of the cookie/biscuit. Some recipes exclude the use of macaroon to refer to this French confection while others think that they are synonyms.[5]"

So although their wiki pages imply that each term (macaron and macaroon) are just translations of the same thing, the two sweets are different. This place, Sucre, sells 'macaroons' while showing pictures of macarons, completely invalidating themselves as a purveyor of fine sweets and perpetuating the miseducation of US eaters (again, in the context of current popular gastronomy, since technically, I guess the term macaroon can be used for both a macaron and macaroon). Ugh, whatever.

(photos courtesy of Pierre Herme and Wikipedia)

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