Immediate self gratification

Am I the only one who finds this macaron from Pierre Hermé obscenely large? Like a Big Mac, but more cream. The macarons from Hermé are admittedly delicious, bit on the baroque side in terms of flavours and composition. My favourite come from Sadaharu Aoki, the salty umeboshi is fantabulous. So much so that I never get a chance to photograph them. They go straight from the hand of the nice Japanese ladies at the shop, into the plastic sac, and into my mouth.

And a chibouste* from our local bakery Secco, who never fails to please.

* From what I can gather it is a type of dessert cream concoction invented by the same fellow who made up the St. Honoré. The cream resembles the meringue of lemon meringue pies, but has milk in it. Apparently very difficult to master, amateurs beware.