On my scale - although I think that my scale is probably quite similar to others, necessarily personal though it may be - macarons sit at the absolute apex of the spectrum of awful to lovely. Nothing, nothing, nothing brightens up my day more than the perfection of a well-made macaron. They are heart-warming in the way that baked goods are heart-warming yet they have that spine-tingling, eye-brightening quality that only comes from the aesthetically pleasing. They are a taste sensation bar none, a thrill that runs the gamut of crisp, biscuit-y outer shell, the soft cake-like quality of the remainder and the ganache (the bit of the macaron that imparts most of the flavour!), sometimes airy and light, sometimes dense and rich, sometimes the sweetest thing, sometimes bitter and surprising, but every time, always time, the stuff that dreams are made of. Eating a macaron - a good macaron - is an experience. But eating a great macaron is a revelation.
It's because of the hard work that goes into them. They are fiddly and fussy, they're the haute couture of the pastry world, whose proponents are the kinds of perfectionists that you only seem to find in the world of patisserie. Listen to someone who makes macarons talk about them and you'll see that they speak in an almost scientific cadence. The temperature of the sugar syrup ("absolutely critical"), the size and shape of the rounds ("symmetry is of the utmost importance"), the flavour of the ganache. I have a friend doing patisserie in Paris and she told me she made 5000 macarons one week on a job, only to have most of them thrown out because they weren't exactly right. Rejection breeds resilience, and now all her macarons are picture and palate perfect. Sure, macarons are having a vogue at the moment, the latest in a long line of cutesy dessert products to cross over from culinary treat to mainstream zeitgeist. They're everywhere - from the sublime to the ridiculous - and they're not all made equal. But I'm an equal opportunity glutton. Just because something is trendy doesn't meant I'm not interested. After all, trends happen for a reason, right? Sometimes - not always, but sometimes - all that hype means something.
For that reason I had been wanting to try Mak Mak Macarons for a long time. Ranked number 1 on Time Out's list of Sydney's best macarons last year, they've just opened a permanent retail space in Newtown, tantalisingly close to university. I finally made it there a few weeks ago and had my world swiftly changed. Quite simply, these are the best macarons in Sydney. It's the combination of pastry perfection and exciting flavour combinations (rhubarb and rose, apricot and elderflower and blood orange and gin and tonic were some of my favourites!!) as well as the way they look. Macarons are necessarily show ponies, all bright colour and high-shine gloss but these ones took it to the next level. I've been dreaming of those rich, colour-saturated rounds ever since. On my scale, macarons are at the apex of the spectrum of awful to lovely. And these Mak Mak ones are truly, truly lovely.
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