Dessert first

Because life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

One each

In a box of 15 macarons from La Boulange in San Francisco, we are down to the final four. One for each of us. We check out a jazz festival on Fillmore Street and uncover a French bakery on Pine Street instead. The cookies have all been excellent. We pass them around the table and think of getting more.

Good eats

Any day spent at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco is a good day. There is Peet's and Blue Bottle Coffee, tasty salted pig parts at Boccalone Salumeria, Boulette's Larder and The Slanted Door. And there are macarons, of course, from Miette. Any day spent eating burgers at Taylor's Automatic Refresher is a good day.

In the Sunday paper

The San Francisco Chronicle looks at French macarons, "perfectly round cookie sandwiches in pastel greens, bright pinks and vibrant yellows."

(Photo credit goes to Eric Luse of the San Francisco Chronicle.)

I have been thinking about macarons on and off for months now. I first tried them at Miette in the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. True, they are wickedly expensive. Then again, they are wickedly good.

The reporter highlights a handful of other places in the Bay Area where these cookies are also available, including Masse's Pastries in Berkeley, Pamplemousse in Redwood City and Bouchon Bakery farther out in Yountville. Grab the sunscreen. I feel a road trip coming on.