I’ve been a fan of macarons before the big hype even started. Delicate, mildly sweet cakes/cookies that originated in France back in the 1800’s. I first had them at Laduree at Champs Elysee in Paris…I fell in love!

Laduree on Champs Elysee and Rue Lincoln in Paris, France. http://www.laduree.fr/en/maisons/monde-details
At 1.50-1.70 euros a piece plus airfare to Paris, it can turn out to be an expensive food craving. Before Laduree in New York opened in August 2011, my task was to find macarons comparable to Laduree in the Las Vegas/ Los Angeles area. Here are some of my finds:

Paulette in Beverly Hills, California. They're now called 'lette. They have flavors such as passion fruit, lychee, earl grey, coconut and the usual flavors (vanilla, coffee, chocolate, pistachio, rose, raspberry). http://www.lettemacarons.com/macarons.html

Bottega Louie in Los Angeles, California. Probably the closest thing to Laduree in packaging and shape/size of their macarons.

Chocolates and macarons from Bottega Louie. They have flavors such as matcha (green tea) and grand cru (chocolate ganache) which are both good and the usual flavors. http://bottegalouie.com/menus/BOTTEGA_LOUIE_DESSERT.pdf

Payard in Caesar's Palace - Las Vegas, Nevada. Their macarons are shipped from elsewhere so don't expect freshly-made macarons

Bouchon Bakery inside the Venetian - Las Vegas, Nevada. They have huge macarons. http://www.bouchonbakery.com/las-vegas
For some reason, I don’t have pictures of La Provence (Los Angeles) macarons. That gives me a good excuse to make a trip to L.A. to get some more and take pictures! Even when the fad dies, I’d still be eating macarons. And although macarons from these places are quite good, they’re still no LADUREE. Sure, vanilla, chocolate and coffee macarons are good in all places I’ve tried. But my test for good macarons is based on pistachio macarons – nobody can beat Laduree’s pistache!