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2015-02-07
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I love macarons. I think I spent every day in France eating a macaron from every where from Pierre Herme to McCafe Paris. Little pillows of joy, is what I call them. Recently, Hong Kong have several places that sell macarons. From the famous Laudurees to small bakeries, the macaron has taken the island by storm. Some are wonderfully good. Some are horrible super sweet sugar molecules. I've tried them all.Jouer is one place I always wanted to try. It's original location is in Wanchai in the Star
Jouer is one place I always wanted to try. It's original location is in Wanchai in the Star Street area. But every single time I am there, it's closed. It's almost like it didn't care if it had business or not. I had read about it on an afternoon tea blog and what peaked my interest is that they use flavors that are more local instead of the usual strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, etc. Recently, I found they had a takeaway counter in Central's Chater Building. So, on my day off, I purposely went there to find them (after walking from Wanchai to see if their original location was open but yeah ... it wasn't). Yeah. I'm crazy about food like that.
The shop is pretty small. Basically a take away counter only with macarons and pastries on display. Service is super friendly and eager to explain their macaron flavors to you. As the shop location is new, they currently have an Instagram promotion where you follow their instructions and you get a free macaron. No purchase necessary!
Chinese Empanada Macaron ($18). I chose this as my Instragram freebie macaron. They had some time limited editions for Chinese New Year and one of them were these. The staff informed me that these were supposed to taste like kok chai (油角仔), those little cookies that you find in local bakeries that are shaped like empanadas but are filled with a peanut filling and deep fried. It looked absolutely adorable. Like a mini hamburger with the sesame seeds on top. It tasted EXACTLY like a kok chai! I could taste the peanut flavor. It was pretty cool!
I ended up buying two other flavors. It was so hard to chose as they had some pretty cool ones all focused on local Hong Kong food. Like the popular vinegar pork knuckle that people make after they have a baby (which I think will try next time). But I ended up choosing yuan yang and vanilla whiskey. It was placed in a cardboard box with the words "french verb to play" to explain what jouer means.
Yuan Yang Macaron ($18). The macaron was two different colors to represent the popular Hong Kong drink, yuan yang (鸳鸯), the mix of coffee with milk tea. It really tasted exactly like it!
Vanilla Whiskey Macaron ($18). I chose this flavor because I love boozy desserts. This was pretty good as I could taste the whiskey without being too strong to over power the vanilla. It made it not too sweet as the alcohol flavor cut into it.
Overall, the macarons had a good texture. Crispy exterior and soft interior. Not to sweet and definitely different flavors that separate them from the competition. The only thing is that the size of the macarons were pretty small. I placed a $2 coin next to it and it was only larger by a little bit. For $18, that is more expensive then Lauduree or Pierre Herme in terms of size.
Will be back as I'd like to try the other strange flavors as I'm curious. I mean .. does the ginger vinegar flavor really taste like that vinegar pork knuckle?? Curiosity and weird food obsessions is the death of me.
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