Inspired by the recent news of the long queues at the recently opened
Laduree Boutique in Takashimaya, I started a conversation between me and my colleague on how people are so willing to pay as much as $5 - $8 for a small macaron.
This led to an innoncent question by my colleague, "Isn't macaroon supposed to be pronounced "mare-kuh-roon"? To her, macaron and macaroon refer to the same confectionery.
Well, before today, I had no idea if they are the same thing.
But my curiosity to know what was the correct way to pronounce the word led me to do a Google search to find out the answer.
And I found that
Macaron and
Macaroon are actually two very different confectioneries!
To give a quick explaination of the difference, the two pictures will do the job.
The first pic depicts a Macaron while the second is a Macaroon.
The website here has a
good detailed writeup of the difference between the two, but here's my own quick version:
Macaron - A brightly colored cookie that usually contains a filling that is sandwiched between a top and bottom base made of eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar and almond powder.
Macaroon - A more chewy type of cookie made with egg-white, sugar, and coconut, often topped with a cherry.
And of course, the way they are pronounced are definitely very different. You can hear an audio version of macaron
here and that of macaroon
here.
