Monkey Monday Macaron Ride Report! 23 March 2010 1:26 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cookies,eating,fun,monkeys,nyc,photos,pictures,random,silly,travel , trackbackOk! Very quick summary:
Macaron Day NYC 2010: what I rode; here’s the interactive version.
For more details (and pictures), read on!
Saturday morning I got off to a super-late start and celebrated the equinox at 1:32 PM or so at home instead of in between stops on my slightly ridiculous plan to ride my bike to bakeries participating in Macaron Day NYC. Then I set off, and had just started into Central Park (up the hill just past the entrances from the northwest corners) when I saw a guy riding ahead of me with his big heavy-duty New York City chain lock wrapped around his waist. Dang, I thought, that’s what I forgot. Rather than turn around, I resolved only to visit bakeries where I could leave my bike in plain sight of where I got my treats, and kept riding. Clearly, all the non-first-floor bakeries were right out, too.
So was crossing Central Park at the 86th Street Transverse, as suggested by the route I had planned on Google Maps:
Click here for a zoomable version of the map.
Hoo monkeys did that ever not look like fun. So (as you can see on the first map in this post) I kept riding around the loop and eventually emerged at East 72nd Street, then turned north on Madison in search of La Maison du Chocolat. Turns out I’d mis-remembered their address, though, and got as far north as East 86th before I finally pulled over to figure out where I was. Ok, I figured, I’ll swing by Butterfield Market first, then get Maison du Chocolat on a second pass. But Butterfield Market (on Lexington) turned out to be a grocery store-type market, with no good way of leaving my bike where I could see it while I was inside, so I rode on.
La Maison du Chocolat worked out just fine:
Blurry victory! Nom!
As was to be expected from a place called The House of Chocolate (only in French), this macaron was chocolate. The twist: hazelnut. Its ganache was basically Nutella on steroids: nom, but I was almost glad I’d only gotten a fourth of a cookie, because I needed a big drink of water afterward, and I’d only brought the one bottle. That said, check out La Maison du Chocolat’s amazing chocolate window displays:
Easter bells, even! If those aren’t exciting to you, I recommend visiting (or revisiting) a certain Scary Go Round story about the French Easter Bell.
Next up, I rode over to and down on 5th Avenue, over on East 72nd, and down Park Avenue:
Getting stuck on the island in the middle of Park = instant photo op.
to Bernardaud:
Ta-dah! I’d been worried about Bernardaud because they apparently do not believe in posting store hours on their website, but now I know: 10 AM to 6 PM. Yay!
Here I opted for the vanilla macaron, which was delicious:
So delicious, in fact, that I almost forgot to take its picture before I’d eaten the whole thing!
Next up on my revised route was Macaron Café, on West 36th, so I had to go across town, which I chose to do on 57th Street. I briefly considered riding south on Fifth Avenue, until I saw the traffic at the relevant intersection:
Never mind.
And instead, I got to make the inevitable joke:
How do I get to Carnegie Hall? On my bike!
Yay! Then I turned down Seventh and headed towards Times Square:
Not for nothing do they say the neon lights are bright on Broadway.
Confession: I ended up walking my bike through Times Square. I know there’s theoretically a dedicated lane in the pedestrian mall, but I could not for the life of me find it. So that slowed me down a little but I did get to Macaron Café:
In my zeal not to photograph the ladies sitting on the bench out front, I got the café’s address loud and clear!
The very nice (and very French) girl behind the counter said she was out of her Macaron Day-designated treats, but took pity on me and gave me part of a pistachio macaron she was sampling out to some paying customers. Merci beaucoup, kind lady!
Parking my bike outside Macaron Café, I noticed that the kickstand had come jostled a little loose; I must not have re-attached it tightly enough after taking off my rear fender the night before. Also, I was already getting a little nervous about the daylight hours I had left, and it was time to stop by Greg’s apartment for a little late brunch anyway. (In case anybody asks, homemade corned beef hash is an excellent counter to being all hopped up on French pastries.)
After Greg’s place, I tried to visit Madeleine Patisserie on West 23rd, but they had a little sign in the window saying that they were all out of the 500 macarons they’d set aside to give away that day, and the sun was setting, so I knew it was time to head home:
Fun fact: beautiful spring days get a lot colder around sunset, especially near big bodies of water (like, say, the Hudson River).
Nothing like a deadline for motivation, and it was still (barely) light out when I got home after a grand total of about 18 miles. I may not have gotten as many pastries as planned, but I still got a great ride in. Yay! I’ll definitely keep looking for more excuses to have NYC food adventures by bike.
