panya macarons - obsessed.

I got the best surprise today - macarons from Panya! Most people who know me know that I'm obsessed with macarons. those who know me really well know that I'm obsessed with green tea flavored-anything. So I LOVED this green tea macaron from panya. I was super excited when I opened the package. Then I bit into it and it had a red bean filling! My two favorite flavors in one macaron, topped with black sesames!

Individually wrapped!

Perfect surprise! Also the macarons at Panya are only $1.50, much cheaper than other macarons around the city. The texture is slightly...air-ier than other macarons from typical French bakeries, with slightly less chewy-ness. You can get these macarons at the Sunrise Mart by Bryant Park or Panya in the East Village near St. Marks.

Macarons at Little Oven - LIC

I had heard about the opening of macaron bakery, Little Oven, in Long Island City and was especially excited after reading that the macarons were only $1.75. This is considerably cheaper than the macarons at Bouchon Bakery for $3 each.

Little Oven is in a tiny storefront on a less-developed stretch of Jackson Avenue – from the subway, it’s the opposite direction from the modern high-rises and more gentrified section of LIC. Once I stepped in to the bakery, I was kind of shocked at how tiny these macarons were! They are probably 1.5 times the size of a quarter! Comparing these to the gigantic macarons at Bouchon – it actually seems like Bouchon might be a better value!

I got matcha, pistachio, caramel fleur de sel (their most popular selling flavor), and dark chocolate. These are the descriptions from their website:

• Matcha: Green tea macarons filled with a green tea and white chocolate ganache
• Pistachio: Almond macarons filled with a pistachio and white chocolate ganache
• Caramel Fleur de Sel: Almond macarons sprinkled with fleur de sel salt and filled with a caramel fleur de sel cream
• Dark Chocolate: Chocolate macarons filled with rich dark chocolate

One of my favorite flavors in any dessert I try is pistachio so I started off with this.

I loved it! While the pistachio flavor wasn't too strong, it is pretty nutty. The almond in the macaron makes up for it. I was also a little hesitant after I saw that it was white chocolate cream inside - I generally think white chocolate is overly sweet, but it wasn't a problem with this macaron at all. I actually enjoyed this a LOT more than the pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery, which I thought was way too sweet. The texture of this macaron was also a lot better - it was very moist, while I found the macaron from Bouchon to be too crumbly (although I had gotten it later in the day so perhaps it had dried out a little as the day went on).

I also really enjoyed the dark chocolate macaron - it was very rich, but somehow not heavy at all. I enjoyed the macarons at Little Oven, but I'm still not entirely sold on them given the price. Maybe for people who are more of a macaron fan than I am.

Little Oven: 12-07 Jackson Ave (btwn 47th Rd & 48th Ave), Long Island City, NY.