Food Porn

The Amateur Gourmet -- a guilty pleasure and nine times out of 10 my "first read" of the day before I get down to actual business -- has a lovely post today about the Gourmand tasting menu at 11 Madison Park, a place I've never been but has gotten all kinds of buzz this year thanks to innovations by new chef Daniel Humm. If you're into food porn, go read it. The descriptions of the dishes there left me in danger of drooling all over my sweater this morning as I read it while snarfing down a sad (and yet magically delicious!) little bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast. I gotta say, fake-marshmallow rainbows -- no matter how vividly colored -- pale in comparison to Adam's description of the foie gras torchon with rhubarb. Gurgle. I doubt that the picture do the food justice, and this is because I believe Adam, the writer, does not use flashes when he's in nice restaurants as they'd disturb other guests. I think that's courteous, so I don't mind. I also love the end of this piece where he says his boyfriend -- with whom he was celebrating his one-year anniversary -- was the best thing in his life -- "better than a langoustine." And judging by the looks of that langoustine, his boyfriend must be pretty great.

Speaking of food porn, Robyn, The Girl Who Ate Everything, had a post the other day about macarons that had such gorgeous pictures that it actually lured me out of my office, into the sunshine, and across the street to Rockefeller Center to visit La Maison du Chocolat -- which she declared had the best macarons in all of New York City. After spending a semester abroad from NYU in Paris (much of it seemingly in search of the perfect macaron), this is a woman who knows something about the gorgeous little French confections. I had never had a real French macaron, and I'm not even all that keen on sweets, but I know I'll be tempted by the macarons at LMdC every time I walk past. I sampled the rasberry and the salted caramel; both were fantastic, although I thought the rasberry had a slight edge. A long, slim, clear box of 12 macarons, which they sell at the shop, would make a fantastic hostess gift if you're ever looking for such a thing. At $2 each for a small macaron, these are not cheap treats, but I found them worth every penny, considering a bag of M&Ms costs a buck.