Playing hooky - well, sort of.

My mom came to New York this week - and even though I took the whole day off to spend with her, she went and made lunch plans with her friend! The nerve! Of course, it did afford me the opportunity to finally have lunch at Bouchon Bakery, something I've been meaning to do since it opened.

Few things feel more indulgent than a leisurely lunch, particularly when the rest of the city is humming and buzzing itself through a work day. I love to sit, read, eat, sip a little wine, and watch the world swirl around me for a bit.

After a quick trip to Barnes & Noble to get some reading material (One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson - really good so far), I arrived at Time Warner Center around 12:45. I was seated right away at the communal table, ordered the lobster roll, and settled in with a glass of Roederer and the amazing bread basket. Obviously, that wasn't all for me.

My lobster roll arrived, absolutely humongous and topped with the seemingly ubiquitous pickled red onion (which I love, no complaints here). It was really too big for one person, and lobster salad is a terrible doggie bag candidate, I had to leave about half the sandwich behind on the plate. Sad. But still tasty. The lobster was very sweet, and the herb mayonnaise dressing it was suitably tangy. I particularly liked the combination of the lobster with the cornichons and the salad - and, of course, all of it went beautifully with the champagne.

I had plans to meet Mom in Williams-Sonoma, but before that I headed to the bakery counter to pick up some of our favorite Bouchon macarons - the caramel ones. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the current crop of seasonal macarons includes strawberry-rhubarb. The caramel were reliably delicious - rich, slightly salty, perfect. But, sadly, the strawberry-rhubarb were too sweet for me. But oh, so pretty in pink.