Macarons are not macaroons. Those dense, coconut-cluster snacks have nothing on these French confections. One bite reveals the layers–a light whipped cream, sandwiched between two puffed pastries, whose sugary shells cracks and melts merengue-like on your tongue, while inside remains moist and chewy. Macarons come in an endless variety of pastel shades and flavors, from always-popular fruit like strawberry and key lime, to hazelnut, caramel, and chocolate.

A fail-safe spot to procure my favorite treats is Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warener Center. Bouchon feel something like a secret, as its situated up two escalators in the middle of an upscale mall. But neither the takeout window, nor the sit-down dining section deals in your standard food court fare. Lunch-friendly prepared sandwiches, like ham and emmenthaler on fresh-baked bread, as well as buttery spinach quiche and watercress salads are available, and priced lower than you might from the chef/owner of the French Laundry and Per Se. However, the baked goods–eclairs, tarts, croissants, brioche, and homemade-oreo “TKO cookies” are where it’s at. As for the macarons, try the raspberries and champagne, nutella, and caramel flavors ($2.75/each). But beware of the passionfruit variety, unless you like your cream filling eye-wateringly tart. Lest your pooch feel left out, foie gras-enriched dog treats are available.

Bouchon Bakery
Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle 3rd Floor
Mon-Sat 11:30am-9pm, Sun 11:30am-7pm

Update 4/2/09: Baoguette has opened up an East Village location.

In terms of bang for your buck, it doesn’t get any better than bahn mi. These famously cheap Vietnamese sandwiches combine French ingredients like baguette, pate and mayo with far-east flavors like pickled veggies, daikon, and grilled pork. Most bahn mi shops are tucked into storefronts in Chinatown and the LES, but Baogette brings the kickass snack uptown, to Lexington Avenue.

I ordered a classic baogette which came stuffed with the above-mentioned ingredients, in addition to cilantro, hot peppers, pork belly slices, tofu strips, a dash of sriracha (on request), and something I can only describe as a vaugely fishy aura, which must be a splash of fish sauce. All this cost a mere $5, which is actually a little steep for bahn mi, but the ingredients were clearly high-quality and the portion was quite large.

My gripe about the baogette is its proportions were off–too much carrot and daikon, not enough pork, and a bit too much pate for my palette (I admit, pate is not one of my favorite foods). The baguette is from TomKat Bakery (the same bread used in Cafe Condesa’s french toast); it was so hard I had difficulty biting into it. A few little adjustments and this could be a terrific sandwich, but this qualified as okay-for-five-bucks. I guess after reading excellent reviews on SeriousEats and elsewhere, I was expecting something more.

Ah, well. I still might head back to try the less-traditional “sloppy bao,” with curried beef and green mango!

Baogette
61 Lexington Avenue at 25th Street. Mon-Sat 8am-8pm

Last night I tuned into Food Network’sThrowdown With Bobby Flay to watch chef Flay challenge Dessert Truck to a bread pudding bakeoff, and I sorta expected to see the truck vanquished. I’ve dissed Dessert Truck’s chocolate bread pudding with bacon anglaise in the past, for while it is definitely smooth and chocolatey, and its charms have grown on me, real bread pudding is NOT about smooth. Bread pudding is about spongy layers soaking up egg and butter, like having your favorite french toast for crumbled up dessert. The version chef Flay made (or rather, that his two assistants made while he yammered in the background), was a chocolate-coconut bread pudding with passion-fruit sauce. It looked fantastic, if a bit busy (I wonder if you could taste the bread pudding under all those flavors), next to the relatively homespun pudding cups from the truck. The crowd taste-tasting on the street seemed split, but the two gals they plucked from the audience to judge the winner went with Dessert Truck! One of them had never had bread pudding before though, so there you are. Maybe Dessert Truck is really great, unless bread pudding happens to be your favorite dessert.

Interestingly, this episode showed the Truck’s chef making the bacon anglaise with real chunks of bacon that are subsequently strained out. I could not taste the bacon at all when I tried it, but the crowd claimed they tasted… something. All I can say is, if you promise me bacon, there better be bacon in there!

While we’re on the subject of bread pudding, Whole Foods on the Bowery sells a classic, plain bread pudding by the pound at their dessert bar. Although I usually stretch my arm muscles reaching for the unbroken bits in the back and cringe when I have to skim the skin off the neighboring caramel sauce, this is a decently delicious bread pudding when I can’t find it anywhere else.

Dessert Truck
Day – Park Ave and 52nd St. Monday – Friday: 12:00PM – 4PM
Night – St. Marks Place and 3rd Ave. Monday – Sunday: 6PM until about midnight

Jimmy’s Corner is a dive in the best sense of the word. This narrow, 40-year-old haunt feels like it’s been plucked from Times Square’s seedier past and plunked down on today’s 44th Street where, ignored by tourists, it quietly ministers to a cross-section of locals. History stares back at you from walls cluttered with autographed photos of boxers, and from the tables, covered with snapshots of random folks preserved in amberish laquer. The beers are cheap ($4 pints of Bud Light, Hennekin, or Sam Adams), sports flickers on the TV, and the jukebox cranks out one Stax soul gem after another. I haven’t heard anything that sucks, or was recorded before 1980, from that wonderful device. If you endure this neighborhood as part of your daily grind, and especially if the recent storm of layoffs that are seemingly hitting everyone has you feeling a bit low, Jimmy’s is a cheap, low-key refuge. It’s a good idea to limit your posse to one or two friends, it is quite small.

Jimmy’s Corner in Midtown Lunch. (This review has a good neighborhood lunch tip–at Margon (136 W 46th st.) you can get a decent Cuban sanwhich for $6 or a heaping platter of roast chicken, rice, beans, salad, and fried plantains for about $8. They’re open until 5pm weekdays).

Jimmy’s Corner, 140 W 44th St. between Sixth and Seventh Avenue

Damn you Dessert Truck.

Not only have you infiltrated my evening stomping grounds in the East Village, as well as my work-days in Midtown, but just as I was growing immune to the lure of your chocolate bread pudding you’ve unleashed something even more irresistible.

Like the creamiest of pie fillings topped with toasted marshmallows and crunchy sugar-roasted pecans, this pumpkin custard is the perfect autumn snack. It’s a good thing it’s jacket season too because soon I might need to camouflage my many, many indulgences in this treat.

I promise to shut up about Dessert Truck now.

Dessert Truck – Park Ave and 52nd St. Mon-Fri 12pm-4pm and on Third Ave and St. Mark’s every day 6pm-midnight