Better than Sunday Masse

With famous places like Cheeseboard Pizza, Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers, and Gregoire filling the Gourmet Ghetto, little places often get overlooked. However, after one (or two) accidental, yet delightful experiences there, it's often these little gems that impel us to leave our nook up at our dorms and to make the trek to the realm of the delicious again and again. Masse's Pastries is the perfect example.

After a gut-busting lunch at Gregoire's, Jenny and I had to wait for Lindsay to come. Though we were stuffed (think 5th month of pregnancy-stuffed), the mere memory of a macaron we had at Bittersweet Cafe forced us to mentally secure another 1 mm of space in our stommachs for some sweets. So off to Masse's Pastries we went...

The moment we walked through the door, our eyes were set on this chocolate macaron. The picture is blurry because my hands were shaking from the excitement...and I have yet to learn how to take close-ups. We quickly handed over our (parents) hard-earned money for the cookie.
Ohh macaron, macaron in my hand. You are the best desert in the land! (Poetry skill will improve. Give it time, give it time)
The most diplomatic way to share the lovin was by splitting it with a coffee mixer stick. Along the way, the macaron's beauty was marred. But no fear, we knew that underneath the demolished shell, was a layer of chewy chocolate heaven.
The moment I bit into the macaron, the essence of chocolate crept over my tongue, into my throat, and happily spent the last minutes of its life resting, in my stommach. Okay, it wasn't that intense, but it was good. However, I was reminded of the pistacio macaron I had at the Ferry Plaza Building in San Francisco. One of my favorite blogs is "The Girl Who Ate Everything." She should really be called "The Girl Who Ate Everything Macaron-looking" because the girl is Lucky (with a capitalized "L"). Living in New York, she's exposed to delicious eats all the time. These delicious eats include macarons. Pistacio macarons. I had always thought that chocolate macarons were the best. However, the moment I bit into a pistacio macaron, I realized that macarons shouldn't be solely sweet, but fragrant and delicate as well. Unfortunately, the chocolate macarons fell into the trap of its breathren. Basically, twas delicious, but I was content with just half.
Birthdays are the best thing ever. The reason? There's cake. For my sister's birthday, she got a mango mousse cake. It resembled the light and creamy cakes of my childhood that I got from Sheng's Bakery and Sogo's. The cake wasn't too heavy and the real star was the fruit (as you can tell from the not-so-subtle inverted mango plopped on top) One word: yumminess...
-Jen
Masse's Pastries
1469 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
510 649 1004