For the next six months, a fun pop-up macaron shop has come to 808B Union Street in Park Slope, and it has a working Ms. Pac Man machine! Without a doubt, it’s a fun treat destination for you and the kids. I was never sold on the particular obsession with the colored puffy things until I went to the opening last week, and was able to sample the marvels. Because I’ve never gotten into the culture before, I decided to ask the owners, Christina Ha and Simon Tung all about them. Here is what Christina Ha had to say:
“I started obsessively making macarons in 2008 when I realized that I really didn’t know how to make them. I made them every day for six months and I still couldn’t master them! Around the same time that I sort of figured them out, Simon and I had started dating and were talking about opening a food business. We pitched the idea of a bakery business to the Hester Street Fair for their debut weekend and they wrote back immediately to let us know that they had one spot left for us, but they had a vendor selling every single product I suggested besides macarons and so they defined the direction of our business. Some of the flavors are more traditional, like chocolate, so we didn’t need a lot of inspiration for them – we needed to make something that really tasted like what the name describes. A lot of the other flavors are based off of things we like to eat so we had to follow our taste buds and make things that we wanted to eat! These include flavors like the Cheetos, the Party Time, and Candied Bacon w/Maple Cream Cheese.” You may be wondering how many flavors they make. “Good question! We have at least 20 at all times, but we also have some special flavors that come and go. We have two flavors that are exclusive to our Park Slope location right now. They are a Milk Chocolate Curry, which is a collaboration with our BK food buddies, Whimsy & Spice, and Pecan Pie.” Christina and Simon have other permanent locations as well at 111 St. Marks Place in the East Village and 560 Columbus Avenue in the Upper West Side. In their St. Mark’s Place shop they do baking classes.
Rebecca Conroy is an artist, stylist, and Editor of A Child Grows in Brooklyn. She is from New York City, and has an MFA from Columbia University in screenwriting. Rebecca often finds herself on film and photography sets making things run or look better, and is the mom of two outrageously wonderful kids.