When I used to live in San Francisco (now I’m just across the bay in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood), I used to love going to the Boulangerie on Sunday mornings. I know. I’m crazy, because Sunday mornings are when this tiny French bakery on Pine Street is the busiest, with people double-parking outside waiting for their significant other inside maneuvering to get some fresh artisan bread, pastries or other delights. (My usual was a loaf of the kalamata olive bread.) The person behind Boulangerie, Pascal Rigo, became the star baker in town, which led to a cookbook and a few restaurants. Now Rigo has created a baking empire known as The...
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Our friend Kathleen is a major cookie monster. Knowing she was coming over, and since we were just up in Pacific Heights eating at the Elite Café (notes to follow!), we made a detour down to Boulangerie Bay Bread for what are hands-down my favorite cookies, Macarons de St.-Émilions. Not to be confused with macaroons, macarons are chewy, almond-paste based cookies infused with flavors (and, evidently, coloring), sandwiched around a creamy filling. The flavors are vibrant and true, but perhaps the most surprising element is the brilliant, almost psychedelic colors of the cookies once you bite through the much more muted outside. See, for example, the kelly green interior of the pistachio macarons in the picture above (click to enlarge). But what flavors: The coffee macaron is like chewing on a perfect cappuccino; the caramel is nutty and almost burnt tasting (in a good way); and the lavender is a taste of southern France, very floral yet not perfume-y. A buck fifty a pop, and worth every penny.
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