I didn't know Pierre Herme opened a store in Bangkok so imagine my shock when I opened the tourist/BTS Skytrain map to find an advertisement of Pierre Herme in EmQuartier, one of the upmarket shopping malls in Bangkok.
This bright and colorful store greets you with about a dozen macaron flavors as well as chocolates.
Look at that uniformity!
The smallest portion of macarons we could purchase was a box of 7 for THB980. I paced about in the store, deliberating the decision of spending RM112 at one go. That would make each macaron, a painful RM16. In comparison, an assortment of 7 macarons sold online is 18 Euros or RM81.
Ouch at the difference.
However, we were leaving Bangkok the next day and the next time I would find myself in Paris would probably be 10 years from now or perhaps never ever even.
Of course I caved in.
The box features Parisian highlights including the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa and The Avenue des Champs-Élysées on the other side of the box.
Beautiful macarons in a row with almost identical feet, smooth, shiny shells and filled every so adequately.
I never thought I would encounter Pierre Herme macarons so soon - I had to pause and admire them.
The little booklet had description in Thai so just zoom in to look at the French names.
I picked Mogador, Infiniment Rose, Infiniment Pistache and Infiniment Caramel while LC picked Infiniment Vanilla, Chocolate and Celeste.
Infiniment Vanille
Vanilla from Tahiti, Mexico & Madagascar
The Infiniment Vanille with the combination of vanilla from 3 countries was a light burst of sweet and fragrant - pleasant and soothing like a nice cup of warm tea.
Infiniment Pistache
The taste of the pistachio was very evident - as though the almond flour had been replaced with pistachio flour. When paired with fluffy buttercream, it was a nice combination but it had a tad too much green coloring perhaps!
Chocolate
The unidentifiable chocolate macaron (It does not appear to be Paineiras variety in the booklet nor the Porcelana variation from my Pierre Herme Paris visit) had hints of bittersweet dark chocolate and the creaminess of milk chocolate that coats your mouth with a thick chocolate goo - the good kind of course.
Passion fruit, Rhubarb & Strawberries.
A mouthful of freshness. That's what it feels like to bite into this small round delicacy. Crisp outside, moist and tender inside, this macaron has passion fruit mousseline cream inside, with a heart of acidulated strawberry-rhubarb compote. This two-step process of discovery starts with passion fruit and culminates in a burst of flavour, courtesy of candied fruits.
Visually, the Celeste macaron is gorgeous. The watercolor ombre pattern on the macaron shell is mimicked in the flavor - colorful with lots of depth. Concentrated with fruit extract, it was indeed a mouthful of freshness.
Infiniment Rose
Rose & Rose Petals
LC hates anything with a rose scent whether it's a fragrance or in his food. But with a little bit of trust, he had a small bite of the Infiniment Rose before declaring that it was the best rose-flavored anything he has ever tasted. Light buttercream with delicate flavors of rose still makes this one of my favorites from Pierre Herme.
Mogador
Milk Chocolate & Passion Fruit
The Mogador is as good as I remembered. Creamy and sweet milk chocolate accompanied by the tart passion fruit - an unlikely combination but delicious nonetheless.
There's no photo of the Infiniment Caramel but the lack of a photo assures you that it was devoured swiftly - only because it was that good. That burn and bittersweet taste is forever etched in my mind and my tongue, no other caramel macaron comes close.
The macarons were perfect this time around- chewy on the inside with a crunchy shell. Just look at how well it holds after a bite and the 3 layers are evident in every macaron - a crisp outershell but soft and moist at the point where it comes in contact with the lovely filling. It doesn't get any better than that.
I have said this before and I will say this again. Pierre Herme has the best macarons in the world. The experience of having a Pierre Herme macaron is like no other and the way each macaron melts in your mouth and how each is perfectly made will prove it indefinitely.